Henry Ford and Kingsford Charcoal?

[Dave]

Buddy just got back from working on the hydro power plant and mentioned a connection. Had to go look it up.

Yep, old Henry had his fingers into a lot of things. Found these interesting facts.

History of the charcoal briquette
Around 1915, Henry Ford was using large amount of wood to manufacture automobiles. Ford operated a sawmill in the forests around Iron Mountain, Michigan to make the wooden parts, so there were piles of wood scraps. Ford learned of a process, which had been developed and patented by Orin F. Stafford, which involved chipping wood into small pieces, converting them into charcoal, grinding the charcoal into powder, adding a binder and compressing the mix into the now-familiar, pillow-shaped briquettes. By 1921, a charcoal-making plant was in full operation at Kingsford, MI.

Ford was instrumental in developing charcoal briquets, under the brand name "Kingsford". His brother in law, E.G. Kingsford, used wood scraps from the Ford factory to make the briquets.
So now you know and can impress people at the next grill-out

Dave

[v8ranger]

Thats pretty cool.... Now people can say there cooking there steaks with leftover ford parts...

[plowboy34]

That is cool, kinda funny that ole Henry Ford made KingsFORD charcoal. Them Fords run so hot you can cook a steak on'em.

[Dave]

I didn't realize at the time I posted that info that it was printed on the back of the bag. It's like reading instructions, why bother. Still interesting. Another thing he did was require all his suppliers of part to ship them in specified sizes of wood in making the crates. He would then turn around and uses the "free" wood in his cars. I think even my '50' F-1 had the wood body supports.
Dave
More about his racing background!
It was a typical cold, biting 1904 January day near Detroit. Lake St. Clair was frozen, providing the perfect long, flat venue for driving a car as fast as it could go. Henry Ford climbed aboard the 999, a car he designed and built, and reached an astounding 91.37 mph. His record would stand for just one month, but remaining in the record books was the not the goal. Ford hoped to garner some publicity for his fledging car company, the Ford Motor Company.

[v8ranger]

I beleive the first ever recall on a ford was the stearing wheel. It was wood, and people where complaining of getting slivers all the time....