In the middle of a punishing heat wave 72 years ago today, somebody up at the Northern Police Station on Keswick Road in Baltimore, had the bright idea of seeing how hot it was in the direct sunlight.
Now, it was plenty hot in the shade. The temperature had reached 103 degrees the day before - July 9. Baltimoreans were collapsing in the streets, and at work. Twenty-eight had swooned by the 10th, as a heat wave swept much of the nation, killing 331. Most people had no access to air conditioning in those days. Hundreds moved to the city parks in search of a good night's sleep.
By the next day, the papers said, the national toll had climbed to 658 souls. By some accounts, the Great heat Wave of June and July 1936 was the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history, with as many as 5,000 killed. It was worst in the Midwest. In Baltimore, they counted one dead - a 10-day-old infant found in his crib - and 44 "prostrated." Frederick reported a high of 109 degrees - still the state record.
BG&E offered Evening Sun readers Westinghouse electric fans "as low as $2.98." Stewart's urged customers to "step out of the heat into cool comfort" with "Misses' Chiffon Frocks with Slips" for $5.99.
Anyway, according to The Evening Sun's account of the police experiment, officers moved the thermometer to a sunny windowsill and waited. "Up went the mercury to 100 degrees - 105! - 110! - 120! On that thermometer 120 degrees was the maximum marking, but the instrument seemed determined to go higher or bust. Well - It busted!"
Over at the Northeastern Precinct, they tested the temperature in the "cooler," and found that prisoners were enjoying a relatively chilly 83 degrees. Out on a lamp post in front of the station it was 110 degrees.
In the 200 block of W. 29th St., the Evening Sun reported (nothing was too small to make the paper in those days) a carrier pigeon dropped from the sky. He took a drink from a rivulet emerging from a hose, rested a bit, then moved to a windowsill to spend the night. Revived by morning, he resumed his mission.
At 3 p.m., the National Weather Service reported a high temperature of 107 degrees at the U.S. Customs House in downtown Baltimore. It was a new record for the city, breaking the 105-degree mark set on Aug. 6, 1918. The new record has never been broken .
