Detroit, Michigan

Revere Copper & Brass Co., pre-1940s.

Library of Congress, accessed Nov 19, 2025.

Revere Copper and Brass Company

The Revere Copper and Brass Company (RCB) began production in 1931 in the heart of downtown Detroit, Michigan, on the banks of the Detroit River. It was a well-known maker of metal cookware. In 1943, with World War II underway, the company signed a contract with the federal government to shift its focus and production to wartime equipment. It was eventually awarded the Army-Navy “E” for excellence in production during the war.

While RCB produced many wartime products, it also had a secret task for the Manhattan Engineering District — to extrude pure uranium billets into rods.

The uranium, referred to as “tuballoy,” was heated for 90 minutes to 1,680 °F in a furnace. Once hot, the metal could be forced through a circular shape, called a die, and shaped into rods in a process called extrusion. Forming a rod took only 90 seconds. Extruded rods were quickly quenched to cool and solidify the metal. To preserve secrecy, the company only processed uranium on weekends.

In 1946, President Truman signed the Atomic Energy Act, transferring management of the Manhattan Project’s work to the civilian Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). AEC continued contracting RCB until 1954 for nuclear materials development. The company extruded a mixture of uranium and thorium known as “myrnalloy” for research purposes as well as other alloys from uranium and non-radioactive metals.

After the contract with the AEC ended, the RCB returned to making metal cookware until it filed for bankruptcy in 1982. The plant closed in 1984. By 1989, all the structures had been demolished.

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