What stood just east of Fort Wayne?

[Bcscott]

I was looking around on Google Maps and noticed a pretty big empty lot just east of the fort on Jefferson between S. Junction and S. Cavalry streets. Anyone know what was once on this spot?

[Krawlspace]

There was a series of industrial buildings that dealt with some form of hazardous material. I don't know the name of the company or companies but I had explored several buildings there in the 1990's prior to their demolition. Not too long after a large fence and a guard post went up. Along the fence were signs warning of the hazardous chemicals on site in a very gruesome and descriptive manner as I recall. I had wondered why my feet had developed extra toes.

My friends and I used to joke of a tag line for Ft. Wayne tours: Spend the day surrounded by history and hazardous waste! Fun for the whole family!

MikeM might fill in some proper names with his Sanborn...

[piczka]

The empty lot is the sight of the former Revere Copper and Brass Plant.

[Bcscott]

Okay thanks. Does anyone know if it started as a Revere facility? I looked it up and its a really old company founded in 1801 and incorporated in 1928.

[1KielsonDrive]

The empty lot is the sight of the former Revere Copper and Brass Plant.

piczka is correct. It was Revere Copper and Brass. Next lot east, between Revere and Mistersky Power Station, was vacant for most of the years I knew of it. The double ended, ice-breaker, car ferry, Jack Dalton, nee Vacationland, docked there for a few years to load new autos for a trip east. Autos were stored there awaiting to go aboard the Dalton. That was late 50's or early 60's. Revere was a major environmental problem site. I believe it was cleaned up about 10 years ago.

[MikeM]

There was a series of industrial buildings that dealt with some form of hazardous material. I don't know the name of the company or companies but I had explored several buildings there in the 1990's prior to their demolition. Not too long after a large fence and a guard post went up. Along the fence were signs warning of the hazardous chemicals on site in a very gruesome and descriptive manner as I recall. I had wondered why my feet had developed extra toes.

Nothing too hazardous...just some uranium and beryllium...

http://www.lm.doe.gov/Considered_Sit...04/MI_04-2.pdf

http://www.lm.doe.gov/Considered_Sit...o_-_MI_04.aspx

[Krawlspace]

Thanks for the docs MikeM!
Interesting to wonder if any of the compounds produced there made it to Bikini or White Sands...

[Krawlspace]

Here's a link showing a 600dpi aerial photo from 1949 showing the Revere complex.

[Meddle]

Nothing too hazardous...just some uranium and beryllium...

Probably some various acids [[hydrochloric, sulferic), cyanide, chromium, copper sulfate and who knows what else.

[MikeM]

Eh, you can find that stuff anywhere in town.

Thanks for the docs MikeM!
Interesting to wonder if any of the compounds produced there made it to Bikini or White Sands...

From what little information there is, it sounds like the material was used in the construction of reactors at Hanford or maybe Oak Ridge, or for use in experiments there.

[MikeM]

My directories list these three companies all at the same address:

5851 W Jefferson
Michigan Copper & Brass
Revere Copper & Brass
Higgins Brass & Mfg

I can't remember the relationship between Michigan C&B, Detroit C&B, and Revere C&B. One of them was a division of the other, or bought out the other, or something like that.

[Bcscott]

Thanks for the link and all the info. I'm going to be in Detroit for four days at the end of February with my model A roadster for the Autorama show. I have a friend who's a custom bike builder from Virginia and like me is interested in industrial history. He'll be up here for the show abd I've been charged with planning an industrial ruins tour for him. Every little bit of information helps. Thanks again.

[piczka]

There used to be a small Sunoco station on the Northwest corner of Jefferson and Junction. I can remember filling up with "Blue Sunoco" for 29 cents a gallon. This was in the sixties. Jefferson was a busy industrial thoroughfare at that time.

[Hornwrecker]

Looking over the links that Mike posted and reading between the lines based on my 'sperience, Revere Cu was chosen because of their experience in extruding unusual materials. Uranium and thorium was extruded into rods which were then cut up into slugs that was used to fuel Reactor B in Hanford, WA for plutonium production for the Manhattan Project.

Tuballoy was one of the code words for the project, and the name myrnalloy was a code name for the U/Th slugs [[a little joke by the nuke physicists on the name of a Hollywood actress).

The Be was extruded into tubes of various sizes, some around a Cu core which was leached away in an acid bath. Be is mostly used as a neutron reflector and initiator, although they may have had other uses in Rx B, as it was still experimental and undergoing design changes all the time.

Wolverine Tubing in Detroit made extruded aluminum tubing that was used in the fuel cladding for the Rx, and for cooling water channels through the graphite pile.

The only other Manhattan Project supplier that I know offhand in Detroit was Chrysler, who made perforated, stainless steel, diffusion "stuff" for the Oak Ridge site, at the Lynch Road Plymouth Plant. The Project did have a local office, located somewhere on Woodward.

Two other names that I found for local contractors:

Carboloy Co., Detroit

Speed Ring Experimental & Tool Co., Detroit,



More info on Rx B: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B_Reactor

[Bcscott]

Wow I knew about the huge contribution Detroit made to the war effort but I had no idea Detroiters had a hand in the Manhattan Project. That's really amazing, my Grandpa was out on a destroyer and said he heard/saw the explosion from the first atom bomb being dropped.

[Bcscott]

Hey pickza, the Sunoco by me sells 110 octane in the summers which is what my other Model A runs on. Unfortunately its $5.50 a gallon which is slightly better than $5.89 a gallon like it was last year. Plus I'm in the process of getting six 2bbl. carbs setup on it right now

[piczka]

Good luck Bcscott. You will need some of that Blue Sunoco 260 Octane.

[MikeM]

The only other Manhattan Project supplier that I know offhand in Detroit was Chrysler, who made perforated, stainless steel, diffusion "stuff" for the Oak Ridge site, at the Lynch Road Plymouth Plant. The Project did have a local office, located somewhere on Woodward.

From: http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/6790/43057.html

Chrysler's part in the project lasted nearly two years and required extreme secrecy, so where did they maintain an office to manage it? In a vacant department store at 1525 Woodward! K. T. Keller, the Chrysler president, drove by the store one day and noticed the empty store which had a war bond office temporarily using the ground floor. He immediately rented the building and used the upper floors for the project's office while the bond drive served as a convenient "front" in the store front.

[MikeM]

Two other names that I found for local contractors:

Carboloy Co., Detroit

Speed Ring Experimental & Tool Co., Detroit

Carboloy Co
Carboloy cemented carbide metal cutting tools, wire drawing dies, diamond impregnated carboloy grinding wheel dressers
11177 E Eight Mile Rd

[lpg]

My mother worked at Lincoln Park Industries [[which used to be on Ferris across from Calders Dairy) as a gauge inspector during the war. I remember her telling me of shipping orders to Carboloy.

[piczka]

Krawlspace, Where is the link for the aerial photo?

[Bcscott]

Point your cursor right over the word link

[luckycar]

The furnance was stolen!From a former nuke site.How Detroit is that.I was in the scrap metal industry in 84/85.I wonder why I haven't needed a night light all these years.Great info MikeM.I know someone who worked at R.C&B,theft city.