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

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/henry-ford-kingsford-charcoal-whats-the-truth/180204>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 6, 2003, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/henry-ford-kingsford-charcoal-whats-the-truth/180204 "2003-06-06T23:58:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/henry-ford-kingsford-charcoal-whats-the-truth/180204/21 "2003-06-09T19:22:24Z")

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Ford was [advertising its charcoal by 1950](http://www.rubylane.com/shops/aseparatething/item/rl-000113).

Found a [newsletter](http://216.239.53.100/search?q=cache:fBcTEoNsmvMJ:clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/missiontrailearlyfordv-8/DN-January-01.pdf+%22ford+charcoal%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8) that mentions someone wanting to know what color to paint a 1939 Ford charcoal grill.  
[link to the original PDF](http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/missiontrailearlyfordv-8/DN-January-01.pdf)

Also found that [Exhibitor Magazine](http://www.exhibitornet.com/exhibitormagazine/archives-category.asp?category=History) had an article on this subject back in August. I don’t feel like going through the (free) registration process in order to read it, though.

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**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2003, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/henry-ford-kingsford-charcoal-whats-the-truth/180204/22 "2003-06-09T19:43:54Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Found a newsletter that mentions someone wanting to know what color to paint a 1939 Ford charcoal grill.  
> link to the original PDF

“You can paint it any color, so long as it’s black.” _–Henry Ford_  
🙂

Happy

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/henry-ford-kingsford-charcoal-whats-the-truth/180204/23 "2003-06-10T01:13:23Z")

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**Jeff**. As usualy, you are sterling with searching for stuff. Thanks a lot.

I registered for that newsletter, and the story was brief. It asserted that Ford started producing charcoal in 1921.

The (1939) charcoal grill thing was great. I may call the guy. I guess I’m too much of a skeptic. Didn’t realize that people were grilling out in 1939. At least not to the extent that there would be a market for grills and briquettes.

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**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\
**Post date:** [June 10, 2003, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/henry-ford-kingsford-charcoal-whats-the-truth/180204/24 "2003-06-10T17:40:06Z")

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You’re quite welcome.

Ford was clearly into camping, as evidenced by [this pic found elsewhere on **don** ’s link](http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/upantiquecc/camp.html) and this [RV](http://adcache.collectorcartraderonline.com/10/7/2/48592372.htm) made long before “RV” ever entered the lexicon.

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