chinery. He is regarded as the pioneer in the
art of steadily supplying oil to machinery in intermittent drops from a
cup so as to avoid the necessity for stopping the machine to oil it. His
lubricating cup was in use for years on stationary and locomotive
machinery in the West, including the great railway locomotives, the
boiler engines of the steamers on the Great Lakes, on transatlantic
steamships, and in many of our leading factories. McCoy's lubricating
cups were famous thirty years ago as a necessary equipment in all
up-to-date machinery, and it would be rather interesting to know how
many of the thousands of machinists who used them daily had any idea
then that they were the invention of a colored man.

Another inventor whose patents occupy a conspicuous place in the records
of the Patent Office, and whose achievements in that line stand recorded
as a credit to the colored man, is Mr. William B. Purvis, of
Philadelphia. His inventions also cover a variety of subjects, but are
directed mainly along a single line of experiment and improvement. He
began, in 1882, the invention of machines for making paper bags, and his
improvements in this line of machinery are covered by a dozen patents;
and a half dozen other patents granted Mr. Purvis include three patents
on electric railways, one on a fountain pen, another on a magnetic
car-balancing device, and still another for a cutter for roll holders.

Another very interesting instance of an inventor whose genius for
creating new things is constantly active, producing results that express
themselves in terms of dollars for himself and others, is that of Mr.
Joseph Hunter Dickinson, of New Jersey. Mr. Dickinson's specialty is in
the line of musical instruments, particularly the piano. He began more
than fifteen years ago to invent devices for automatically playing the
piano, and is at present in the employ of a large piano factory, where
his various inventions in piano-player mechanism are eagerly adopted in
the construction of some of the finest player pianos on the market. He
has more than a dozen patents to his credit already, and is still
devoting his energies to that line of invention.

The company with which he is identified is one of the very largest
corporations of its kind in the world, and it is no little distinction
to have one of our race occupy so significant a relation to it, and to
hold it by the sheer force of a trained and active intellect.

Mr. Frank J.