Weber Rapidfire Chimney Starter

George, an employee of Weber Brothers Metal Works just outside of Chicago, welded metal buoys for the Coast Guard. But that's not all he did - George loved to grill. With a growing family at home he found it the perfect way to relax, but couldn't find a grill on the market that lived up to his high expectations. The most popular grill of the day was a flat open brazier - a product George found woefully under-engineered. He knew there had to be a better way.

One day, George was about to weld two buoy halves together when the idea hit: Why not use the bottom half for the cooking bowl, and the top half for the lid to create a grill? Piece by piece, his vision started coming together. He then added a handle and three legs and took his crazy-looking contraption home to test.

As the story goes, when George first tried out his prototype, it didn’t work quite as hoped. No matter how hard he tried, it just wouldn't stay lit. A neighbor peering over the back fence offered a little friendly advice. "Poke some holes in that thing so the fire can get some air!" So George did, and the flames of invention could finally keep burning.

Shortly after, all of George's neighbors gathered around to enjoy a taste of the best steak they ever had in their lives. George figured he was really on to something, so he packed up George's Barbecue Kettle and hit the road, demonstrating his funny looking creation at mom-and-pop hardware stores across the country.

And the rest, as they say, is history.