Charcoal

[Heard]

You guys probably already know this, but I read the other day in my local paper that Henry Ford was either the inventor of charcoal or at least the one that made it mainstream.

It had to do with trying to come up with a use for the sawdust/woodchip waste at the Kingsford factory.

Now this could be FAKE NEWS, but I think that is pretty neat if true.

[RalphM]

Do a search on here, I remember seeing Ford charcoal in a past thread.

[35ragtop]

It was brick- ettes like the bbq ones I read.

[CHuDWah]

Originally Posted by Heard

You guys probably already know this, but I read the other day in my local paper that Henry Ford was either the inventor of charcoal or at least the one that made it mainstream.

It had to do with trying to come up with a use for the sawdust/woodchip waste at the Kingsford factory.

Now this could be FAKE NEWS, but I think that is pretty neat if true.

Here ya go:


https://www.kingsford.com/country/about-us/


Henry liked to go camping with buddies Edison, Firestone, etc which may be one of the reasons he was interested in charcoal. I've seen pix of Ford brand briquets and like most of Ford's products, they were stamped with his script!

[RobR'35]

Yep, lots of them made right up here at the Iron Mountain operations. The town the plant is in was changed to Kingsford.
Its about 30 miles from where I live. A few years ago (9) I worked at a fab shop located in to old Ford plant complex.
Number 2 body plant is what my dad called the building the shop was in.
Heavy with Ford history in the U.P..
Many saw mills, timber lands (400,000) acres worth, towns near the mills, two iron mines, a power dam built near the plant to power it.
Love Ford history!

[RobR'35]

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All that was once running and aquired by Ford up here isnt any more.
What a dream he had and look where he went with it.

[Jim in Wisconsin]

Well for sure ol Henry didn't invent charcoal- people have been making that for a long time (thousands of years I suspect).

[JSeery]

Originally Posted by Jim in Wisconsin

Well for sure ol Henry didn't invent charcoal- people have been making that for a long time (thousands of years I suspect).

At least as old as iron and steel, believe it is required to get the heat required to smelt.

[Tinker]

Kings"ford". Henry Ford was a outdoors men. He believed in maintaining land, not exploiting it totally. Wanted everyone to enjoy it.


"briquettes was a great way to get people out of the house, travel, and into parks. Didn't hurt sales either.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-twcqM8JyI



Nice Edison/Ford museum in Sarasota fl. Edisons winter playground and lab. Ford hung out too.


http://www.edisonfordwinterestates.org/



Henry Ford was also in to physical fitness, were Edison thought you only needed enough strength to keep your head from falling down.




https://www.thehenryford.org/collect...t-sets/101111/

[Tinker]

Originally Posted by Jim in Wisconsin

Well for sure ol Henry didn't invent charcoal- people have been making that for a long time (thousands of years I suspect).

Charcoal, yes.

[Don Rogers]

Here is a poorly researched history of Ford Charcoal briquettes.

During the Iron Mountain days Ford made a lot of sawdust when making Station Wagon Bodies. Rather than waste the sawdust, Ford or one of his people compressed the sawdust into a briquette form, fired it in a kiln and a very useful charcoal briquette was invented. In addition to using these briquettes in the steel manufacturing process, Ford sold them complete with cooking grills thru his dealers. Ford later sold the process to a friend and the Kingsford Charcoal Co. was born and still exists to this day. If you tour a Kingsford plant today you can still see the Ford name on the old kilns.

[V8COOPMAN]

Here's a little better pic of the Ford grill. DD

[Tinker]

Originally Posted by Jim in Wisconsin

Well for sure ol Henry didn't invent charcoal- people have been making that for a long time (thousands of years I suspect).

Not to get too heavy on history. But you wonder why the middle east and Africa (also most of Europe) does not have trees? Charcoal. Wood was the main energy source.

[FortyNiner]

Originally posted by Pete:


The Ford Motor Company sold more than one million Ford Model Ts in 1919, and each of those Model Ts used 100 board feet of wood for the parts such as frame, dashboard, steering wheels and wheels. Because of the amount of wood that had to be used in the cars, Henry Ford decided he wanted to produce his own supply. He enlisted the help of Edward G. Kingsford, a real estate agent in Michigan, to find him a supply of wood. Coincidentally, Kingsford’s wife was a cousin of Ford - making the partnership a reality.[2] In the early 1920s, Ford acquired large timberland in Iron Mountain, Michigan, and built a sawmill and parts plant in a neighboring area (which became Kingsford, Michigan). The mill and plants produced sufficient parts for the car but generated waste such as stumps, branches and sawdust. Ford suggested that all wood scraps were to be processed into charcoal.[3]

A University of Oregon chemist, Orin Stafford, had invented a method for making pillow-shaped lumps of fuel from sawdust and mill waste combined with tar and bound together with cornstarch. He called the lumps “charcoal briquettes.” [4] Thomas Edison designed the briquette factory next to the sawmill, and Kingsford ran it. It was a model of efficiency, producing 610 lb (280 kg) of briquettes for every ton of scrap wood. The product was sold only through Ford dealerships. Ford then named the new business Ford Charcoal and changed the name of the charcoal blocks to “briquets”. At the beginning, the charcoal was sold to meat and fish smokehouses, but supply exceeded demand.[5]

By the mid-1930s, Ford was marketing “Picnic Kits” containing charcoal and portable grills directly from Ford dealerships, capitalizing on the link between motoring and outdoor adventure that his own Vagabond travels popularized. “Enjoy a modern picnic,” the package suggested. “Sizzling broiled meats, steaming coffee, toasted sandwiches.” It wasn’t until after World War II that backyard barbecuing took off, thanks to suburban migration, the invention of the Weber grill and the marketing efforts. An investment group bought Ford Charcoal in 1951 and renamed it to Kingsford Charcoal in honor of Edward G. Kingsford (and the factory's home-base name) and took over the operations. The plant was later acquired by Clorox in 1973.

[Tinker]

Ford did some interesting things.


The modern 94 Holley came from a contract made by ford and Chandler-Groves in 38. Ford retaining the option to seek production after the 1st year of production. Handing the design off to holley after a year to meet production in 39.

[V8COOPMAN]

Originally Posted by Tinker

Ford did some interesting things.

Henry was extremely interested in the 'hereafter'.....it was the MONEY that he was HERE AFTER. DD

[woodiewagon46]

I just purchased a book called "Iron Mountain Ford Motor Company Plant Kingsford, Michigan, 1920-1951" Full of facts and figures on the construction and operation of the plant.
It has facts about the Ford charcoal.

[woodiewagon46]

I just purchased a book called "Iron Mountain Ford Motor Company Plant Kingsford, Michigan, 1920-1951" Full of facts and figures on the construction and operation of the plant.
It has facts about the Ford charcoal.

[Heard]

Well I guess that is not fake news after all.

Thanks for the history lesson. Very interesting.

[rockfla]

@Heard
If you are so interested....there were two sizes of Ford BBQ grills....the "camp" size pictured above on Don Rogers post and then there was a smaller one....My dad has both and the "smaller" one in "ALMOST" new in box.....some one used it maybe once and fortunately DIDN'T use the charcoal Briquette's (also pictured above) and the wood shavings tender box (Not pictured) Used as the starter for the BBQ (and presumably shavings from the woody bodies and the whatever wood used in the consumer bodies) AS for the "camp" size stove that is ALL we have of that one!!!