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.

The solution came from a University of Oregon chemist named Orin Stafford, who 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.” Ford, ever efficient, shortened the word to “briquet.”

While the charcoal-making process is usually kept under wraps, the Kingsford factory in Belle, Mo., sometimes offers tours, including to local elementary school children.

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.

The Kingsford Company was formed when E.G. Kingsford, a relative of Ford's, brokered the site selection for Ford's new charcoal manufacturing plant. The company, originally called Ford Charcoal, was renamed in E.G.'s honor.

Unlike the pure hardwood lump charcoal, the briquettes contain several additives that help them light and burn consistently. Most briquettes are compressed tightly from various materials such as coal dust, borax, sawdust, wax, chaff and more.

Over the past century, Kingsford has had time to refine their formula. The briquettes have become smaller and more compact. If you're returning to grilling after a long hiatus, you'll find that Kingsford briquettes burn hotter and longer due to the denser material.

The history of biomass briquetting Briquette was first developed by the British mechanical engineering research institute. Their raw material is peat. Then the technology was used to process lignite and clean coal, and was gradually developed to use for the waste in the paper mills.

Who makes Kingsford® charcoal? Our charcoal is crafted by experts across America, with factories in Kentucky, Missouri, Oregon and West Virginia.

Kingsford is a known quantity with a fairly high degree of quality control. There's a reason that Kingsford has stayed in business for over 100 years. Over the past century, Kingsford has had time to refine their formula. The briquettes have become smaller and more compact.

Charcoal is a convenient and attractive energy source because of its high calorific value compared to firewood; it is cleaner, producing less smoke when burned than firewood; it is generally less expensive to cook with charcoal, and provides a reasonable substitute for electricity during frequent power disruptions.

Activated charcoal is often used in tissue culture to improve cell growth and development. It plays a critical role in micropropagation, orchid seed germination, somatic embryogenesis, anther culture, synthetic seed production, protoplast culture, rooting, stem elongation, bulb formation etc.