B & T Metals: The Company that Helped Win the Atomic Race

As the United States raced to build atomic bombs during World War II, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Manhattan Engineer District, commonly known as the Manhattan Project, had acquired enough pure uranium metal by 1943 to begin mass-producing fuel for plutonium production reactors. What they did not have was the know-how to convert uranium metal billets into a form capable of fueling reactors.

An African American entrepreneur, Lyman Kilgore, owned B & T Metals. Born in Hillsboro, Ohio, he had labored on an orchard before taking a job with a flooring company in Columbus. When the company faced bankruptcy, Kilgore bought it out and turned it into the highly successful B & T Metals.

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