Idols, everyone needs them or at least just someone to look up to and admire. People need something to look forward to, aspire towards some kind of goal – basically ambition. For Minorities, specifically African Americans in engineering, role models in the engineering field aren’t glorified. It is not because people feel they are unimportant it is because they just haven’t been informed. For example many people know the clich’e The Real McCoy but they don’t know where it comes from; or why it has the connotations it does. Truth is McCoy was an African American mechanical engineer whose parents were runaway slaves in the early 20 th century.
It almost sounds like an oxymoron, a black engineer at a time when blacks weren’t even allowed to go to certain schools or sit at certain bars. However we still use that famous coined phrase and don’t realize the significance involved in its origins. Present day role models are also important, our history is one thing, but it is more conceivable when it can be seen in real life. Conceivable meaning easier to understand and recognize the potential opportunities this individual created. Lloyd Ward only the second African American to become a CEO of a major company. The thing about Ward is his willingness to succeed and ability to do so in untraditional fashion.
Ward is also a mechanical engineer whose background is almost as unbelievable as his rise to the top. This report is about two of the greatest men who have ever lived; their accomplishments should be viewed as goals that we all can value and maybe one day copy. First a historical look at one of the most prolific and ingenious engineers of all time – who never stopped working and fulfilling his dreams. Elijah McCoy (1844-1929) was an American inventor born in Colchester, Ontario, Canada, to parents who had escaped from slavery in Kentucky in 1837. McCoy was best known for his inventions of devices used to lubricate heavy machinery automatically. McCoy went to Edinburgh, Scotland, at age 15 and studied mechanical engineering for five years.
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When he came home he became a railroad fireman on the Michigan State Railroad. Back then steam locomotives had to stop at intervals so that the fireman could oil their pistons, levers, and connecting pins. About 1870, while living in the town of Ypsilanti, Michigan, McCoy began to experiment with automatic lubricators for steam engines. He received his first patent in 1872 for a ‘lubricator cup’ that provided a steady but unregulated flow of oil to a lubricating point.
Later that year he patented a lubricator equipped with stopcocks linked to a rod that enabled the oil flow to be controlled. In 1925 McCoy invented a graphite lubricator for steam engines that ran on superheated steam. The graphite was suspended in oil and the design prevented lubricant clogging. McCoy’s lubricators were used on locomotives, steamships, and factory machinery. McCoy also patented an ironing table (1874) and a scaffold support (1907)…
However the most interesting part of his story is how he came to invent the lubricator cup. As mentioned earlier he became a fireman, not by choice but at the time was the only thing a black man could do even with an engineering background. It was a ludicrous job that today makes no sense. It literally was stopping a train every few miles so the train can have its parts lubricated. Now to understand the scope of danger involved in this procedure realize that a means of communicating between trains was not invented until 1888.
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Now the reason this is important is because trains need a great deal of room to stop and usually know how far each other train is in front of them or behind by some means of communication. These periodic stops, in retrospect, are not only expensive and unnecessary (meaning it should have not been done for so long without looking for a plausible alternative), but dangerous. Elijah took it upon himself to basically destroy his job, meaning with his invention people in his profession would no longer be needed. Only smart men can look at life and improve on it at risk to their livelihood.
The other important thing about this whole story is that if you pay attention closely to the dates this all happened about thirty years before the civil rights movement. Meaning not only did McCoy work at a job no one thought a black man could do. He replaced the job with something no one else in the field had tried or possibly even thought of. Consider the fact that near the end of his life he had started a company and received over 20 patents (list of patents he received at end of report) 50 years before blacks were really ever seen in the engineering profession.
Even today there aren’t many minorities in the engineering and sciences. However if people like Elijah McCoy were used as role models maybe more minorities would feel empowered to become engineers and help change and reinvent all parts of the world. Lloyd Ward, briefly a description of his background. Lloyd Ward’s family lived in a 20 x 20 foot house with no running water.
He had 2 brothers and two sisters and they lived in one of the poorest parts of America. His inspiration probably came from his dad who with no education went to the library and taught himself how to fix cars, the roof of the house and install plumbing. This is a great accomplishment when you consider he worked three jobs while doing it. Ward went to college in Michigan State on a basketball scholarship where he wanted to become a doctor.
He faced all kinds of racism there to the point where his roommate insisted he basically not touch anything in the room that was his (the roommates).
Lloyd overcame and graduated with a B average as a mechanical engineer. He went to work at P&G (Proctor and Gamble) where he was one of eight engineers in a company of over 1200 employees. Considering he had told an executive at P&G, when asked about his goals, that by the age of 45 hr wanted to be chief executive of a major US corporation – these numbers weren’t exactly the most reassuring.
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This shows that Ward had bigger things on his mind than being a mechanical engineer for the rest of his life. He showed his pursuit of success by changing fields within companies and at times stepping down in the hierarchy to learn the ways of the field. He would then rise and excel in any branch. For example at P&G he completely remade a 100 year old Ivory dale soap plant into a stable environment that had previously been revamped haphazardly. He then went to Ford motor Comp. , back to P&G, and then to Pepsi Co where he headed the Frito Lay western and central divisions.
Where he made one of his greatest triumphs in his career, he stopped Anheuser-Busch Cos (BUD) from bringing out there line of snack foods Eagle and in doing so made a very big name for himself. He left Frito Lay (Pepsi Co), a profitable and secure company, to become the CEO of Maytag an appliances manufacturer. This was a company not doing well at the time at and has since been revitalized. He changed there share in the appliances from 15% of the market to 19% and increased profits 37%.
The important thing to realize about this is that the whole way Ward was volunteering at High Schools and through tutoring and mentorship with fellow employees spear headed a program that made 61% of its students pass a math state requirement exam, when only 32% had passed the year before. These two men are some of the greatest role models black youths can study and look at. The opportunities they have created are insurmountable. The things they have done are unmatched and the fashion in which they did it is inspiring. When you consider the backgrounds of these individuals along with the time periods at which they did it, it is extraordinary. Telling people of their story can only aid in the development of minorities into the engineering profession.
Reason being by seeing examples like these, their pursuits will no longer seem impossible. Individual Research Report Role Models for Minorities in Engineering (Elijah McCoy and Lloyd Ward).
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Elijah McCoy#129, 843#130, 305#139, 407#146, 697#150, 876#173, 032#179, 585#255, 443#261, 166#320, 354#320, 379#357, 491#361, 435#363, 529#383, 745#383, 746#418, 139 (co-inventor Clarence B. Hodges) #460, 215#465, 875#472, 066#610, 634#611, 759#614, 307#627, 623 7/23/18728/6/18725/27/18731/20/18745/12/18742/1/18767/4/18763/28/18827/18/18826/16/18856/16/18852/8/18874/19/18875/24/18875/29/18885/29/188812/24/18899/29/189112/29/18914/5/18929/13/189810/4/189811/15/18986/27/1899 automatic oil cup Improvement in lubricators for steam engines Improvement in lubricator Improvement in steam lubricators Improvement in ironing tables Improvement in steam cylinder lubricator Improvement in steam cylinder lubricatorsLubricatorLubricatorLubricatorSteam dome for locomotivesLubricatorLubricator attachment Lubricator for slide valvesLubricatorLubricatorLubricatorDope cupLubricatorLubricatorLubricatorLubricatorOil cup Lubricator.
