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Kingsford is a brand of
charcoal briquette Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...
used for
grilling Grilling is a form of cooking that involves dry heat applied to the surface of food, commonly from above, below or from the side. Grilling usually involves a significant amount of direct, radiant heat, and tends to be used for cooking meat a ...
, along with related products. Established in 1920, the brand is owned by
The Clorox Company The Clorox Company (formerly Clorox Chemical Company) is an American global manufacturer and marketer of consumer and professional products. As of 2020 the Oakland, California based company had approximately 8,800 employees worldwide. Net sales ...
. Currently, the Kingsford Products Company remains the leading manufacturer of charcoal in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, with 80% market share. More than 1 million tons of wood scraps are converted into charcoal briquettes annually.


History

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...
sold more than one million
Ford Model T The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. The relati ...
s in 1919. Each one used 100
board feet The board foot or board-foot is a unit of measurement for the volume of lumber in the United States and Canada. It equals the volume of a length of a board, one foot wide and thick. Board foot can be abbreviated as FBM (for "foot, board measure" ...
of wood for parts such as frame, dashboard, steering wheel and wheels. Because of the amount of wood used,
Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that mi ...
decided to produce his own supply. He enlisted the help of Edward G. Kingsford, a real estate agent in Michigan, to locate a supply of wood. Kingsford’s wife was a cousin of Ford. In the early 1920s, Ford acquired large timberland in
Iron Mountain, Michigan Iron Mountain is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 7,518 at the 2020 census, down from 7,624 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Dickinson County, in the state's Upper Peninsula. Iron Mountain was named for the va ...
, and built a
sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...
and parts plant in a neighboring area which became
Kingsford, Michigan Kingsford is a city in Dickinson County in the U.S. state of Michigan, named for the developer Edward G. Kingsford. The population was 5,139 at the 2020 census, a slight increase from the 5,133 recorded at the 2010 census. It is part of the Ir ...
. 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 be processed into charcoal. A
University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...
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."
Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...
designed the briquette factory adjacent to the sawmill, and Kingsford ran it. It was a model of efficiency, producing of briquettes for every ton of scrap wood. The product was sold only through Ford dealerships. Ford named the new business Ford Charcoal and dubbed the charcoal blocks "briquets". At the beginning, the charcoal was sold to meat and fish smokehouses, but demand exceeded supply. By the mid-1930s, Ford was marketing "Picnic Kits" containing charcoal and portable grills at 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 Weber Inc. is a publicly traded American manufacturer of charcoal, gas, and electric outdoor grills with related accessories. In 2004, Weber-Stephen acquired some assets of competitor Ducane at a bankruptcy sale. It also owns restaurants and publ ...
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 The Clorox Company (formerly Clorox Chemical Company) is an American global manufacturer and marketer of consumer and professional products. As of 2020 the Oakland, California based company had approximately 8,800 employees worldwide. Net sales ...
in 1973.


Manufacturing

Kingsford Charcoal is made from charred soft and hardwoods such as pine, spruce, hickory, oak and others depending on which regional manufacturing plant it comes from. That char is then mixed with ground coal and other ingredients to make a charcoal
briquette A briquette (; also spelled briquet) is a compressed block of coal dust or other combustible biomass material (e.g. charcoal, sawdust, wood chips, peat, or paper) used for fuel and kindling to start a fire. The term derives from the French word '' ...
. As of January 2016, Kingsford Charcoal contains the following ingredients: * Wood char - Fuel for heating * Mineral char - Fuel for heating * Mineral carbon - Fuel for heating *
Limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
- Binding agent *
Starch Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human diets ...
- Binding agent *
Borax Borax is a salt (ionic compound), a hydrated borate of sodium, with chemical formula often written . It is a colorless crystalline solid, that dissolves in water to make a basic solution. It is commonly available in powder or granular form, ...
- Release agent *
Sawdust Sawdust (or wood dust) is a by-product or waste product of woodworking operations such as sawing, sanding, milling, planing, and routing. It is composed of small chippings of wood. These operations can be performed by woodworking machinery, ...
- Accelerate ignition The raw materials, primarily wood waste from regional sawmills, are delivered to the factory. The wood waste is fed into pits to undergo magnetic filtration to remove any metallic parts. The wood waste is then ground into fine particles and whisked with hot air to remove any moisture. The wood particles are later processed through a large furnace with multiple hearths (called a
retort In a chemistry laboratory, a retort is a device used for distillation or dry distillation of substances. It consists of a spherical vessel with a long downward-pointing neck. The liquid to be distilled is placed in the vessel and heated. The n ...
) in a controlled-oxygen atmosphere. The particles are stacked in batches in a kiln that chars the wood without burning in a controlled-oxygen atmosphere. The wood is progressively charred as it drops from one hearth to the next. The charred wood particles are combined with the other ingredients, press formed into pillow-shaped briquettes and dried before being packaged for sale. Kingsford has also begun retailing a charcoal product that combines their charcoal with spices to create flavored smoke.


Plant locations


Charcoal facilities

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Burnside, Kentucky Burnside is a home rule-class city in Pulaski County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 611 at the 2010 census. In 2004, Burnside became the only town in Pulaski County or any adjoining county to allow the sale of alcoholic beve ...
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Springfield, Oregon Springfield is a city in Lane County, Oregon, United States. Located in the Southern Willamette Valley, it is within the Eugene-Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. Separated from Eugene to the west, mainly by Interstate 5, Springfield ...
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Belle, Missouri Belle is a city in northeast Maries County and extending north into southeast Osage County in the U.S. state of Missouri. The population was 1,381 at the 2020 census. The Osage County portion of Belle is part of the Jefferson City, Missouri Me ...
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Summer Shade, Kentucky Summer Shade is a small unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Metcalfe County, Kentucky, United States. Originally the area was known as Sartain Precinct and later as Glover's Creek; W.M. Riggs, the postmaster, changed the ...
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Parsons, West Virginia Parsons is the county seat and largest city in Tucker County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 1,322 at the 2020 census. The mayor of Parsons is Dorothy Judy and the city administrator is Jason Myers. The city is also governed by ...


Retort facilities

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Glen, Mississippi Glen is a town in Alcorn County, Mississippi. The population was 382 at the 2020 census, down from 412 at the 2010 census. History The town of Glen, located southeast of Corinth, owes its beginning to the Memphis & Charleston Railroad. Glen wa ...
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Beryl, West Virginia Beryl was an unincorporated community and coal town located in Mineral County, West Virginia, United States. Homes and properties were slowly purchased over the years by Westvaco NewPage was a leading producer of printing and specialty papers i ...


References


External links

* {{Clorox Charcoal Clorox brands Products introduced in 1920