GUEST: Our neighbor worked with
Enrico Fermi during the
Manhattan Project.
And he was responsible for doing
some of the reactor design.
And these blocks were used in
constructing the first two
reactors ever, uh, in the world.
When they were decommissioning,
he was able to get this block.
Subsequently, since I was
trained in nuclear science, gave
it to me.
The original was constructed
under the stands at the football
field at the University of
Chicago.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: And after, uh, they had
done some of the initial
experiments, they took it apart
and took it out to a
site outside of Chicago.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: And then rebuilt it, and
did some more experiments, and
then designed a completely
different system.
And then, after several years,
abandoned those reactors and
moved on to a, a different
design.
APPRAISER: The brick that you
have brought today is actually
from a reactor that was
known as the Chicago Pile-1.
On December 2, 1942, the
scientists gathered and ran
tests.
One was successful, and that was
at the beginning of the
Manhattan Project.
Which, less than three years
later, as we all know, resulted
in the atomic bombs that
were dropped in World War II.
The reactor was composed of
approximately 45,000 of these
bricks.
It's very high-quality graphite.
The reactor was extremely simple
because it was the first one.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: It was basically a
tall cube shape, 57 layers of
approximately 45,000 of these
bricks.
It was in a simple wood frame,
and it had absolutely no
shielding whatsoever from any
kind of radioactive spillover
that might have occurred.
They had guys with buckets of
cadmium salts standing in the
room to try and pour over
the reactor if things
started to go south.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: The
experiments worked.
And they all broke out a bottle
of Chianti that somebody had
brought...
GUEST: (chuckles)
APPRAISER: ...and drank a toast
to their success, and signed the
label of the Chianti bottle.
Which is the only reason we know
who was there, because there are
no written records saying
what scientists actually
participated in this experiment.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: You had mentioned
something about having the brick
tested for radioactivity?
GUEST: Right.
I had a, an appointment at the
University of New Mexico in the
radiopharmacy program.
And we brought the brick down
and put it on a counter over a
weekend and detected no,
uh, radioactivity whatsoever.
So we're safe
standing next to it.
APPRAISER: I'm, I'm very
happy to hear that.
GUEST: (chuckles)
APPRAISER: The small pieces
which are three inches by
three-quarter-inch by
three-quarter-inch...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:...have sold at
auction anywhere between $2,000
and $4,000.
There is currently one of them
available online retailing for
$6,500.
You have an entire brick, which
is extremely rare, and your
brick is 11 by four by four.
So at auction, I would say this
piece would be worth easily
$16,000 to $20,000.
GUEST: Mm!
APPRAISER: And given that you
have an entire brick, I would go
more towards the high end
of that estimate.
I've never appraised
anything like it.