The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - 44: The Greaseman Cometh

Episode Date: February 28, 2017

Don't like your job?  Just invent something that does it for you.

This is the way I heard it. The grease man dragged his shovel across the wooden floor and stabbed it into the towering pile of coal with a satisfying crunch. Technically, this was a job for the fireman, but the grease man wasn't one to complain. In 1869, complaining on the Michigan Central Railroad got you nowhere. Lifting with his legs and pivoting with his hips, the grease man sent the anthracite sailing through the air with the flip of the wrist

and watched it vanish into the furnace's gaping mouth. The sounds of his work kept time with the tempo of the train that swayed beneath him, a steady Sisyphian rhythm propelling man and machine through America's heartland. As he shoveled, it occurred to him that his body worked a lot like the engine he fed. The more fuel he gave it, the faster it would go. But when the train quickly slowed and ground to a sudden halt, for the fifth time that day, the grease man stopped. thinking in metaphors and prepared himself for the job at hand, the job that no one wanted,

but somebody had to do. Armed with an oil can, a giant brush, and a bucket of rendered animal fat, the grease man jumped from the engine car and began the business of lubricating the axles, as well as every piece of exposed metal inside the locomotive's engine. It was tough work, it was hot work, but there was no getting around it. Back then, Locomotives were constantly shutting down for oiling and loosening. So too were engines and wheels and factories and ships all over the world. Everything that moved needed lubrication, and nothing could be lubricated while it was moving. Thus, the wheels of civilization could only turn as quickly as the grease man could work.

After ten minutes of contortions underneath several box cars and inside the engine itself, our hero emerged, looking very much like a glazed donut. Sweat streamed down his forehead and stung his eyes. Chunks of animal fat clung to his overalls and skin. Was he resentful? Did he believe his advanced apprenticeship and mechanical engineering from a prestigious machine shop in Edinburgh, Scotland, might entitle him to do something more than shovel coal and slather lubricant upon the entrails of America's iron horse? No. But he, but he, He was thirsty. The grease man was very, very thirsty. And as he gulped down cup after cup of cool water, he was once again struck by the similarities between a hardworking engine and a hardworking railroad man. Along with copious amounts of fuel, both required plenty of internal lubrication. The grease man refilled his empty cup and wondered aloud, what if a train could be hydrated as easily as a man? It was a good question, and for the next year the grease man tinkered in his workshop, determined to find an answer.

Eventually, he perfected a prototype. Then he applied for a patent. His device was simple. A reservoir of oil that used gravity to deliver just enough of the lubricant to wherever it was needed while the engine was still running. He called it a lubricating cup. If it worked, locomotive engines were. would no longer need to stop down in order to be oiled. A true, a mechanical solution would eliminate his own job,

but all things considered, it seemed like a risk worth taking. Well, the lubricating cup did work, and the impact on productivity and mobility was astounding. Word of this breakthrough spread all over the country, and soon, every engineer and conductor from Tacoma to Tallahassee was demanding one. Obviously, the grease man was in no position to leap into mass production, so for the next few years, cheap imitations popped up everywhere, promising the same results. But none proved as reliable as the original. In fact, many of those impostors made the problem even worse.

If it wasn't the grease man's original lubricating cup, it just wasn't worth it. Over the next 60 years, the Greeceman would apply for and receive 57 additional mechanical patents and literally revolutionize the industrial revolution. Along the way, he paused to invent the ironing board because his wife was tired of steaming his shirts and the sprinkler because he was tired of watering his lawn. But it was his original lubricating cup that changed the pace of modern civilization and helped build the infrastructure we rely upon today. Thomas Edison once said that true genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.

Well, maybe if Tom had consulted with the grease man called Elijah, he might have assigned a few percentage points to lubrication and emancipation as well. You see, long before Elijah was greasing wheels on the Michigan Central Railroad, Railroad, hundreds of anonymous men and women were quietly greasing a different set of wheels on a different set of tracks, tracks that would carry Elijah's parents from a plantation in Kentucky to a small town in Canada. There, the grease man was born, unlike his father, a free man. Thanks to the Underground Railroad, Elijah was afforded an opportunity. Thanks to his parents, Elijah was afforded an apprenticeship.

And thanks to his work ethic and his unquenchable thirst to build a better mousetrap, Elijah was afforded success. And a last name that still resonates today. You know it. You've probably used it. It's the name of a former slave that's become synonymous with everything authentic, everything original. It's the name we invoke today whenever our search for the genuine article leads us to ask, Is that the real McCoy?

Anyway, that's the way I heard it. When you manage procurement for multiple facilities, every order matters. But when it's for a hospital system, they matter even more. Granger gets it and knows there's no time for managing multiple suppliers and no room for shipping delays. That's why Granger offers millions of products in fast-dependable delivery so you can keep your facility stocked, safe, and running smoothly. call 1-800 Granger, click Granger.com, or just stop by.

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