George A. Stephen Sr. (February 26, 1921 – February 11, 1993) was an American

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

, and the founder of

Weber-Stephen Products Co. Weber Inc. is an American manufacturer of charcoal, gas, and electric outdoor grills with related accessories. It also owns restaurants and publishes cookbooks. The company was family owned until it sold a majority stake to BDT Capital Partner ...

, the company best known for the manufacturing of

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, ca ...

and

gas Gas is a state of matter that has neither a fixed volume nor a fixed shape and is a compressible fluid. A ''pure gas'' is made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon) or molecules of either a single type of atom ( elements such as ...

grills Grills is the plural of grill. As a surname, Grills may refer to: * Caroline Grills (1890–1960), Australian serial killer * Dave Grills (born 1959), Australian politician *Lee Grills (1904–1982), Canadian politician *Leo Grills, known as Lucky ...

. Stephen is credited with the invention of the Weber

Kettle A kettle, sometimes called a tea kettle or teakettle, is a device specialized for boiling water, commonly with a ''lid'', ''spout'', and ''handle''. There are two main types: the ''stovetop kettle'', which uses heat from a cooktop, hob, and the ...

grill by cutting a metal

buoy A buoy (; ) is a buoyancy, floating device that can have many purposes. It can be anchored (stationary) or allowed to drift with ocean currents. History The ultimate origin of buoys is unknown, but by 1295 a seaman's manual referred to navig ...

in half and fashioning a

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

shaped grill with a rounded lid, which he began selling in 1952.

External links

Weber Corporate Website

Weber Grill Restaurant

References

American manufacturing businesspeople 1993 deaths People from Palatine, Illinois Deaths from cancer in Illinois 1921 births 20th-century American businesspeople Engineers from Illinois 20th-century American engineers 20th-century American inventors {{US-business-bio-1920s-stub