Copyright © 2003 Christopher Vale, used with permission.

I began high school. It is 1953. The school has no girls; a monastic maleness prevails. There is a dress code: white shirts, neckties and dark pants. Most teachers are alumni. Boys are expected to participate in after-school clubs and sports. The school is integrated.
The principal preaches "freedom and responsibility". Graduates of the "A Course" will enter the sophomore year in college. There is a student-run government and court.

A classy, costly, private school?

No. The Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, a city public high school.

Engineered for success

Called "Poly" throughout the city, it was started in 1883 as a "Manual Training School". The impetus toward its eventual engineering excellence was provided by three successive United States Naval veterans as principals.

Lt. John Ford (1864 Gulf Blockading squadron), Lt. John Saville, who coined the name that eventually stuck, and then the influential engineering officer Lt. William R. King who became principal in 1899. He introduced major changes in curriculum and increased academic standards.

In his post Civil War duties, he had been to Constantinople and later directed artillery experiments at Willetts Point, New York. It's likely his vision was that this high school should prepare young men for the rigors of his alma mater, the United States Naval Academy.

In 1921, he was succeeded by Wilmer A. Dehuff, my principal from 1953 to 1956. He was a man in control, not with blows and loud voice, but with stern regard he exercised sovereignty. By the time he retired in 1958 more than 30 years of students remembered him respectfully, and the Baltimore Sun hailed him among educators "best of the Century".

An electrifying education

Besides rigorous mathematics, chemistry and engineering theory, there were many hands-on work-shops. The woodworking shop was called "pattern making". Wooden patterns were made for molding in green sand in the "dirt shop", really the foundry.

We cast many lead bookends and Poly wall plaques (and occasionally threw clumps of "dirt" at each other). There was a forge shop with forty gas furnaces and forty anvils (think about that next headache). A machine shop; sheet metal shop; chemistry lab; steam engineering laboratory.

There must have been ten different drawing classes. Engineering, perspective, mechanical, surveying, and architectural.

At term's end we endured college-like exams with 70% passing minimum. No passing grade-then do it over. Steam Engineering lab demanded well-written reports - Bourdon steam pressure gauge, super-heated steam calorimeter, heating value of coal.

And to pass the "A" and "B" course each class had to assume the duty of supplying electricity to the school for a single day. This required running the big Corliss steam engine and measuring its efficiency, best efficiency; highest grade.

We weighed water, shoveled coal, measured pressure,voltage, current, r.p.m., and power output. Points off for spilling water or, God forbid, shutting off the cylinder oil.

It was hard labor and the culmination of classroom work. It was a unique piece of education.

Survival, and more

I graduated in 1956 and my class has had a pre-fiftieth anniversary get-together. My best friend is someone I've known since my freshman year at Poly.

He began his career serving Westinghouse in Frequency Control theory and ended it computer programming for Northrop Grumman. We both joined the Westinghouse-Johns Hopkins cooperative program. We learned engineering in a combination of lecture hall and workplace.

Our bachelor's degrees were earned going up to Hopkins four nights a week (classes until 10:10 p.m.) and still putting in 40 hours at work. I consider my survival and success due to guidance from Poly.

If the school still operates with the regimen I endured, then our country can depend on a flow of energetic young men and women dedicated to improving our lives by way of engineering discipline, and the spirit of Poly will continue to serve.¶

A Typical Poly Day by Christopher Vale, Poly '56

The morning 27 trackless trolley left Morrell Park about 8am, threaded through downtown and turned into Preston Street at the old rathskellar where the Meyerhoff now stands. I got off beyond Calvert Street and usually walked 6 blocks to Poly up on North Avenue.

First thing was to stow coats and lunch in my locker, which never seemed to be near homeroom. Two of mine were in the basement, and one may have been Mr. Latane's French class. For sure I recall passing through El Toro country, with its forty anvils, to the "mud" shop--the foundry. The boys were seated in a gallery looking down on Mr. Webster's desk, the most memorable feature being a brass casting of his hands. Another year I homeroomed in the cellar at the partioned heat engines classroom of Mr. Simon. I liked it because it was warm, smelled slightly of hot oil, and always had the smaller engine operating. The big Corliss was reserved for the boiler test.

Off to the first period of seven chances it was a drawing class, mechanical engineering, perspective, or surveying. I just wonder how many maps were made of the Baltimore Polytechnic property. Learning surveying was partly learning to level the instument and partly learning to read the vernier. When it came to actually making the drawing Mr. Herbert would quack on about little, bittie, neato block lettering and symmetrical arrowheads on our dimensioning.

Next we might have a shop course. Woodshop for example, was called pattern making--patterns for casting in the foundry. We butchered pine to make the bearing bracket (with cores) and the famous building washer. Butchering reminds me of the horse-hide glue pot cooking away and giving its stink to that part of the room. I don't remember if this was Mr. Merkle's bailiwick.

I guess I liked English class under Mr. Flagg because of the emphasis on literature; when it came to sentence construction and analysis I was lost.

I can't remember a semester without math in one form or another. Algebra, trigonometry and geometry, plane and solid, were pounded into us by Lustbader, or Smith, or Walker.

How lunch was scheduled I don't know. I brown-bagged so I don't know anything about the cuisine. Our group always had games of table football by flicking matchbooks across the table. And I recall Zeke Lazarus and his daily jar of wheat germ. Looking back, I would say we were a pretty orderly lot.

Back to class, maybe to history. Mr. Bader enjoyed his joke about the Boston Massacre, how in the horsey age there was plenty of ammunition in the streets to throw at the British soldiers. He was a thin man with very large hands which he used to emphasize a point. At the time I never understood why some of the boys called him "master" as though we were in an English school. Mr. Vogelhut's "Problems of Democracy" seemed to be a cross between History and Civics.

Physical Education on the fourth floor had us all running around in gym clothes looking like underwear. I remember somewhat my ineptness at climbing ropes where some could do it with ease. There were mandatory showers despite one boy's objection "everybody will see your sagebrush." I guess it kept you from getting sweaty in the labs.

We had electricity, chemistry, mechanics, physics, and engineering labs. I'm sure we did some hands-on stuff that would make safety beaurocrats sweat.

I think I enjoyed mechanics class because the problems often involved trains of x tons rolling down some % incline and having a coefficient of friction Y, etc. Similarly the engineering laboratory involved the steam machinery, its fuel, quality of steam, energy output versus input.

Chemistry was mostly entertaining anecdotal stories. I learned my chemistry in Science Club.

Speaking of clubs after last class at 2:30 it was almost obligatory to join one. I was at various times in Stamp and Coin, Science, Model Railroad, Camera and Challenge Case Club, the last earning me my Poly letters under guidance of Mr. Herbert. I often would shoot with the rifle team carrying my cased rifle on the bus to the Fifth Regiment Armory where there was a small bore range in the basement. I don't know if you would be allowed to do that now. I was never on the team; I tell myself it's because I couldn't afford a competition rifle; but my brother was on the team with the same rifle later so I'm probably conning myself.

Going home I almost always walked down to Preston Street even though a bus was available. Kahler, Hohenberger, and sometimes Klepes and I would walk together. We all rode the 27; some got off in Pigtown and the rest at the end of the line.

Getting home didn't mean the end of school. There was always ample homework which sometimes needed collaboration with Yogi Savetman over the phone. It would get done and possibly leave time for Lucy or Bilko, or if you could get away with it, Jack Paar's late show. Tomorrow, do it again.¶

POP QUIZ 1. “This here is the hardy hole.” 2. “Put that away, prune.” 3. “Too soft; push it out; do it firmer.” 4. “Arrowheads have to be neat and symmetrical.” 5. “Well, lad, you forgot the cross product term.” 6. “There will be no fighting in school: take it over to the duck pond.” 7. “…and for lack of automobiles there was plenty of stuff in the street to throw at them.” 8. “Put your necktie inside your shirt.” 9. “The paint changed color; as a scientist you must be observant of such things.” 10. “That’s good for a naught.” 11. “The lettering in the graph will be 1/16th inch using India ink.” 12. “All lines go to the vanishing point.” 13. “Along came a guy with a gadget.” 14. “I can lend you a necktie.” 15. “Our tools are our blessings.” Freedman Herbert Lustbader Merkle

Acree Bader Dehuff Flagg Levin Simon

In the spirit of fairness I must admit one of these comments came from Western High School, my wife Sharon’s Alma Mater. If any have lady friends and/or wives from Western, see if they can spot that one.

Sometime in the late fifties, perhaps when DeHuff retired, Poly was accused of being elitist. HORRORS! We can’t have that. Let’s bring all the schools up to Poly’s standards. No! That’s too difficult; instead let’s bring Poly down to every other school’s standards. That’s a lot easier.

Dr. Wilson

Well, with the advent of a new Director, Dr. Barney Wilson, the leadership is back in the hands of a powerful alumnus. Mediocritization of Poly won’t happen, He’s on his way to making Poly number one high school in the nation. It will happen. Dr. Wilson, himself like DeHoff, will nurture more great ones— Menckens, Miyasakis, Rices, Smiths, and on and on.

Click here for the answers to our quiz. ¶

PRINCE WATTIFF by Christopher Vale ©2006 Poly 56

Vale (before) Vale (after)

My ex-sister-in-law had an idea that will never come to pass, though it certainly has attractive features. She proposed a time inversion of salaries. That is, some judgment should be made (how?) of a person’s final career salary and that should be his STARTING salary. Then it should taper downwards as the career progresses. Thus when facing life’s highest expenses--starting a family, buying a house, educating children--you have the maximum earnings; and as the nest empties less income is needed and paid.

Now, what if…. What if you began your career in 1956 earning the salary with which you ended your career? A new house would have cost you $12,000 and a new car $2,000. Your children could have been educated at Harvard for $1,000 per annum. Your necessary expenses, groceries at $30 a week or rent at $90 a month, would have been so relatively small that you could have packed away substantial savings in either bonds, stocks, or both, getting them while they were cheap. The assets could have been held letting them compound until later in your life; you wouldn’t even need a salary.

Besides necessaries luxuries come to mind. Buy a house at the beach--O.C. or Delray; or a ski lodge in the mountains. Trips to Europe would have been easily affordable. I wonder about the cost of fifty-yard-line seats and those behind the plate. A box at the opera or symphony season tickets? And you probably would never have to borrow money. It leads to fascinating speculation.

Back to reality, 1956 was the year Ford introduced optional seat belts. The first video recording was perfected by Amperex. The new transatlantic telephone cable came on-line. We exploded the first airborne hydrogen bomb.

The summer Olympics were in Melbourne. The New York Yankees took the world series and the N.Y. Giants the pro football championship. Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon were re-elected to their second term. Dr. King organized the Montgomery bus boycott. Congress authorized private atomic energy plants and the Federal Interstate Highway System. The Soviets quelled the Hungarians; and Britain and Israel attacked the Suez Canal. Castro landed on Cuba’s east coast to lead a revolution against Batista. Prince Rainier married Grace Kelly. John Lennon teamed up with Paul McCartney.

Academy Award went to Around the World in Eighty Days. Elvis Presley recorded four hits including Don’t Be Cruel and Hound Dog. Pat Boone’s hit was I Almost Lost My Mind. Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Gunsmoke were top TV favorites. I used to enjoy Your Show of Shows with Sid Ceasar and Hit Parade. I don’t think we had color then. I wonder who hosted the Late Show? §