Henry Ford. Kingsford charcoal. What's the truth?

A current running thread What happened to all the Model T Fords?.

This has been repeated in other threads. It is detailed on a website at http://www.upclics.org/cityofk/history.htm

I guess it sounds like a somewhat urban legend to me. I won’t categorically deny that it’s true. But was there really that big a use for charcoal before the post-WWII era? For what? Grilling?

Kingsford first trademarked their name in 1951. Ford never trademarked anything about charcoal as far as I could find, using the US Trademark site.

Isn’t it hard to believe that Henry Ford wouldn’t trademark SOMETHING about his product?

I never heard this Ford/Kingsford story before, but I know charcoal has been used by blacksmiths throughout history because it can produce a hotter fire than wood. Of course, they weren’t using shaped briquets like you can buy at a modern supermarket. I remember several medieval legends that involve “charcoal burners” but I’m not clear on how wood is made into charcoal.

Are you talking about charcoal or charcoal briquettes? Charcoal has been used for a very long time:

From here.

From here.

By the way. I’ve e-mailed Roger Scott who created that webpage, asking for a cite. He is the current treasurer of the City.

Here’s a page that says it was “Ford Charcoal Briquettes” at first.

doneyoatey. Thanks for the help.

Your website merely parrots the info from the website I listed in my original post.

And I"m talking about Charcoal briquettes. I’m interested to know if there was a market for charcoal in that form before the post-WWII era.

Webpages tell me about how you could only buy that stuff from a Ford car dealer.

I contend that I need proof.

[sub]when will I learn to preview[/sub]
Sorry about your name, donkeyoatey

How about something evidently from Kingsford itself?

No cite but this is right from the back of the bag:
"In the 1920’s, Henry Ford learned of a process for turning wood scraps from the production fo Model T’s into charcoal briquets. As a result, Ford built a charcoal plant.

E.G. Kingsford, a relative of Fords, was instrumental in selecting the site for the new charcoal manufacturing plant. Later, Ford Charcoal was renamed Kingsford Charcoal in his honor."

I truly appreciate everyone’s help.

What I’m trying to find is some independent evidence that Ford made charcoal briquets from 1925-1950, and sold them as “Ford Charcoal Briquets.” (If anyone can provide a cite that they were sold only at Ford dealerships, that would be a bonus. A BIG one). Or anything similar. I’ll take anything that independently verifies this.

Corporate histories can be accurate. But they sometimes tell the story the way they heard it.

samclem, did you check to see if Edison had a patent relating to briquettes? I ran across a couple sites that said he designed the plant, and I can’t figure out how to search the US patent site that far back.
(I’m sorry about my name sometimes, too):smiley:

Unfortunately, the online archives don’t go into much detail that far back.

Thanks, Jeff. I thought maybe I was missing something.

The trademark index is a pretty useful tool, but sometimes frustrating. You need to be able to search for different spellings, etc.

But I’ve done it. There is NO evidence that Ford trademarked anything related to charcoal.

That doesn’t mean that Ford didn’t make and sell charcoal. He/they just didn’t trademark it.

The webpages that assert that the charcoal was sold only in Ford dealerships kinda convince me that Ford, a sumbitch when it came to biz, would have trademarked his product. Hard to belive he didn’t.

Charcoal briquets existed in the 1930’s, according to the trademark index. I just can’t find anything connected to Ford.

The Patent Site sucks for searching.

Here’s a personal experience description

astro Good help. I just emailed Farr about his memory. That’s the kind of thing I needed.

On page 44 of Alton Brown’s cookbook “I’m Just Here for the Food”

This isn’t a very good picture, but it’s definately bags .

Great work, don. (Can I just call you don?) :slight_smile:

Those bags prove it existed. Now I guess I just want to find out “when” exactly did Ford start bagging up that charcoal for sale.

After reading your link this morning, after two cups of coffee rather than a few beers last night, I stand corrected about it parotting what my original cite said.

Ford most certainly turned sawdust and scrapwood into charcoal. I would assume that, in the 1920’s and 30’s it mostly went to fire the furnaces of steel plants.

I have no doubt that there are scholarly books on Henry Ford that give answers. I just didn’t get to the library yet.

Thanks for all the help guys.

I just thought I’d point out the obvious: Ford did trademark his charcoal product. The trademark was Ford (as shown on Donkey’s photo link). He evidently did not see the need for a brand separate from his automobile brand.