The Long Weekend That Changed Grilling š
Henry Ford brought his famous friends to the Upper Peninsula and ended up giving his cousin-in-law a famous last name thanks to what they found.
Happy Friday! Hereās another edition of Lesser Tedium, a version of Tedium that, like charcoal, makes for good burning material. Want more content like this? Subscribe over this way.
Editorās note: Lesser Tedium will take Monday off.
Henry Ford, complicated a figure as he is, has had a significant impact on the way that we do certain things. And Iām not just talking about cars: ourĀ embrace of soy in processed foodsĀ is largely a result of his influence.
Another, less-heralded, example of this occurred amid a long weekend in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Ford tasked his first-cousin-by-marriage to help him find a large, reliable supply of wood that he could use for his vehicles. On this journey, Ford brought a group of people with names just as famous as hisāThomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and conservationist John Burroughs. But ultimately, this journey would set the stage for ensuring his cousin-in-law would become famous too. His name? Edward G. Kingsford.
Kingsford and Ford were close friends and often took trips like this together. But this trip was different, and eventually led them to find a strong supply of wood near the Wisconsin border, and eventually would lead to a Ford plant around modern-day Iron Mountain.
The wood was used in Ford vehicles for decadesābut wood is wasteful, and left lots of sawdust. Around this period, notably, inventors had determined that sawdust mixed with tar made a good choice for charcoal, something first patented as a lump of fuel in 1895.
Ford saw an opportunity to take this byproduct, turn it into charcoal, and go national within just a few years. (This was good for consumers, as the successful byproduct ultimately made his vehicles cheaper.) Kingsford ran the factory in a town that was named for him, which made Ford Charcoal, and after Ford stopped producing vehicles with wood in them, the factory continued making charcoal briquettes under the Kingsford name.
Ford was working at such a large scale that he could turn byproducts into major products in their own right.
So now you have something to talk about when you fire up the grill this weekend.
Ā» Wanna learn more?Ā Check out āA Slow-Burning Hot Take,ā which also describes how charcoal was once briefly seen as an alternative to gasoline.