Weird Facts about Kingsford® Charcoal Briquets

• Ford Charcoal was renamed Kingsford Charcoal Briquets after E.G. Kingsford, the relative who helped Henry Ford select the site for his charcoal plant. In 1921 Henry Ford wanted to find a use for the growing piles of wood scraps from the production of his Model Ts. Ford learned of a process for turning the wood scraps into charcoal briquets, and one of his relatives, E.G. Kingsford, helped select the site for Ford's charcoal plant.
• Essentially, wood scraps are heated in ovens that contain little or no air, causing the hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen in the wood to escape, leaving behind black, porous charcoal.
• The company town which sprang up around the site was named in Kingsford's honor, and later, Ford Charcoal was renamed the Kingsford Product Company in 1950.
• Kingsford keeps approximately one million tons of sawdust, bark, and excess wood out of local landfills every year by taking it directly from sawmills and pressing it into charcoal briquets.
• Fortune magazine rated Kingsford Charcoal Briquets one of the best products made in America.
• Charcoal briquets for barbecuing should not be confused with activated charcoal, manufactured by other companies that remove most of the impurities from ordinary charcoal by treating it with steam and air heated to above 600 degrees Fahrenheit. While wood, bone, and activated charcoal are all used to absorb colors, flavors, and odors from gases and liquids, activated charcoal—available in pet stores (for fish tank filters) and drug stores (in capsule form) works best.
• Activated charcoal allegedly helps dry up acne pimples, according to Ben Harris, author of Kitchen Medicines, who suggests taking one-half teaspoon of activated charcoal three times a day after meals.
• In May 1959, the United States sent two young female monkeys, Able and Baker, into space in a Jupiter rocket. Monkey Able, dressed in a space suit, wore gauze and charcoal diapers.
• On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, spoke the first words on the moon: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." The second thought he expressed was: "The surface is fine and powdery, it adheres in fine layers, like powered charcoal, to the soles and sides of my foot."
• All automobile engines contain a canister filled with activated charcoal that absorbs evaporating gasoline fumes when the car's engine is off. The system is designed to prevent hydrocarbons from being released into the atmosphere by trapping and storing fuel vapor from the fuel tank, the carburetor, or the fuel injection system.
• The Kingsford Product Company remains the leading manufacturer of charcoal in the United States, converting more than one million tons of wood scraps into charcoal briquets each year.
• More than 77 percent of all households in the United States own a barbecue grill. Nearly half of those grill owners barbecue year round and, on the average, use their grills five times a month.