Henry Ford revolutionized the automobile, but few know he also sparked America's backyard barbecue obsession. When his Model T production created mountains of sawmill waste in the 1920s, Ford saw opportunity where others saw trash.

Each Model T required 100 board feet of hardwood for frames, dashboards, and steering wheels. Ford's Michigan sawmills produced the parts—and massive piles of stumps, branches, and sawdust. Rather than burn or dump the waste, Ford enlisted help from two brilliant minds.

The Dream Team Behind the Briquette

University of Oregon chemist Orin Stafford had invented a method for compressing sawdust and charred wood scraps into pillow-shaped fuel lumps, which he patented in 1923. Meanwhile, Ford's friend Thomas Edison designed a factory to mass-produce them adjacent to Ford's sawmill in Iron Mountain, Michigan.

The factory churned out nearly 100 tons of briquettes daily by mixing charred hardwood chips with starch and compressing them into uniform shapes. What started as waste management became a commercial juggernaut.

From Ford Dealerships to Backyard Grills

Ford initially sold the briquettes as "Ford Charcoal" exclusively through his car dealerships. By the mid-1930s, he was marketing complete "Picnic Kits" with portable grills—essentially inventing the backyard cookout as we know it.

The operation was run by Edward G. Kingsford, a real estate agent married to Ford's cousin, who had helped Ford acquire the Michigan timberland. In 1951, the product was renamed Kingsford Charcoal in Edward's honor.

Today, Kingsford commands 80% of the U.S. charcoal market. Every summer cookout, camping trip, and tailgate party traces back to Ford's refusal to waste sawdust. The man who put America on wheels also put burgers on the grill.

So while Ford didn't invent the charcoal briquette, he did something arguably more important: he made it ubiquitous. That's classic Henry Ford—take someone else's good idea, figure out how to mass-produce it, and change American culture forever.

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