It all started in 1919 when Edward G. Kingsford helped Henry Ford procure a stretch of timberland to supply wood for his auto plants. Mr. Ford wondered if all the wood waste generated by his sawmill and plants could be put to better use, and found his answer in a new process for pressing blocks of reconstituted char.

Kingsford is a brand of charcoal briquette used for grilling, along with related products. Established in 1920, the brand is owned by The Clorox Company. Currently, the Kingsford Products Company remains the leading manufacturer of charcoal in the United States, with 80% market share.

Kingsford Charcoal, for example, by far the most popular brand in the US, is made up of bits of charcoal, coal, starch (as a binder), sawdust, and sodium nitrate (to make it burn better). For the same reason that SPAM is cheaper than a whole ham, briquettes are cheaper to make than all-wood charcoal.

The shelf life of Kingsford® Original charcoal is indefinite as long as the product is stored in a cool, dry place. If the briquets become damp, they will not light efficiently. Kingsford® Match Light® Charcoal and Kingsford® Match Light® Charcoal with Mesquite have a shelf life of 1–2 years if stored properly.

The first use of charcoal for purposes other than providing heat was around 30,000 BC when cavemen used it as a pigment for drawing on the walls of caves. Then around 4000 BC came a monumental discovery, probably by accident, when a piece of ore fell into a charcoal fire and began to ooze metal.

• Fact #1: Charcoal Briquettes Were Not The Invention of Henry Ford.
• Fact #2: Natural Lump Charcoal is Better than Briquettes.
• Fact #3: The Smoky Flavor is More of an Aroma.
• Fact #4: Arranging The Charcoal in a Pyramid Helps Lighting.
• Fact #5: It is Extremely Easy to Create Two Temperature Zones in Your Charcoal Smoker.

A briquette (French: [bʁikɛt]; 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 fact that charcoal burns better than wood was probably noted soon after man learned to control fire over a million years ago. The first use of charcoal for purposes other than providing heat was around 30,000 BC when cavemen used it as a pigment for drawing on the walls of caves.

The wood is grinded. And fed into a rotary dryer where it's converted into high consistency char. And the result soft briquettes plant manager Steve Miller says the new briquettes.

Lump charcoal can last just about forever as long as you keep it dry. Briquette is another story. It is made of binder such as starch and absorbs moisture much easier than lump charcoal. Self-igniting charcoal has a year or two shelf life before the igniting chemicals evaporate.

What is the longest-lasting charcoal? Charcoal that's carbonized at high heat (like binchotan) tends to last longer than briquettes (next in line) or lump hardwood (the fastest-burning). Above, we recommend two options for longer burning coals: Prime 6 and Jealous Devil Binchotan.

History. Charcoal was often a key component of cave painting, with examples dating back to at least 28,000 years ago. One of the oldest charcoal paintings is a picture of a zebra, found at the Apollo cave in Namibia.