The History of our Public Schools
Wyandotte County, Kansas

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KCKS Public School System, 1819-1961
by Nellie McGuinn
Copyright USD 500, Feb 1966

The United States sent its first radar beam to the moon on January 10, 1946.  Before summer a device known as the "Translator" had been developed by IBM and was introduced by F. L. Schlagle at a conference in New York.  The invention later was used at meetings of the United Nations to facilitate understanding among the various delegations.

The magazine of the National Elementary Teachers Association in April, 1946, carried an article and pictures concerning Parker School.  Superintendent F. L. Schlagle was presented a "Lord Elgin" watch.  Inscribed on it were the words, "F. L. Schlagle from Kansas City, Kansas Teachers - July 5, 1946."  In expressing his gratitude, Mr. Schlagle told the Kansas City delegation, "May I always be on time and make my speeches short."

At the World Conference on Education held in Endicott, New York, curing the summer of 1946, Mr. Schlagle headed the United States delegation of four.  On the first day at the suggestion of the Bolivia and other South American delegates, he was elected chairman of the convention.  Plans were made for a world organization of teachers.  Foreign visitors to the conference, Mr. Schlagle reported, expressed three wishes as to what they wanted to do while in America.  The four United States delegates then saw that the foreigners visited a school, ate a "hot dog," and attended a baseball game!  It was at this meeting that the "Translator" was first used.

[Annotation:

• 1890: The first punched cards were used to read information.
• 1896: The Forms Tabulating Company was started in 1896. In 1914, it became C-T-R Company, for Calculating-Tabulating-Recording. Eventually, in 1924, this became the International Business Machines (IBM) Company.
• 1904: John A. Fleming develops the first "Vacuum Tube"
• 1925: Vannevar Bush invented the large-scale differential analyzer
• 1935: Konrad Zuse developed the Z-1 computer.
• 1936: John Vincent Atanasoff and John Berry developed the Atanasoff-Berry computer.
• 1937: Alan Turing developed his "Universal Machine".
• 1939: Bell Telephone Lab developed the Complex Number Calculator.
• 1943: The Colossus Mark I decrypting computer was developed.
• 1944: The Harvard Mark I was developed.
• 1945: A bug was found in a computer relay, and the term "debugging" was coined.
• 1946: The ENIAC I (Electrical Numerical Integrator And Calculator) was developed. It is considered the first "true computer" (first fully electronic, general purpose digital computer)
• 1947: The transistor was invented. ( The first evolutionary inventions that eventually allowed computing to be scaled down for general commercial use.)
• 1948: BM released the system known as the SSEC (Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator)
• 1949: The Manchester Baby was developed. It was the first stored-program machine.
• 1951: The first UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) computer was delivered to Census Bureau.
• 1953: IBM developed the IBM 701 EDPM, IBM first computer.
• 1954/1964: The programming languages FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslation), ALGOL (ALGOrithmic Language) , BASIC (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language) and LISP (LIST Processor) were created.
• 1956: IBM 350 Disk File Hard Disk Drive system.
• 1958: Jack Kilby invented the first integrated circuit.
• 1961: IBM introduced the IBM 1401 Computer.
• 1964: IBM introduced the System 360, which was the first "family of business computers
• 1967: The first computers using integrated circuits were built.
• 1968: The Computer Mouse was invented.
• 1968: The Intel Corporation was formed.
• 1969: Work began on ARPAnet, the predecessor of the Internet.
• 1971: INTEL developed the first Microprocessor. (See Microprocessor History)
• 1971: The floppy disk was also developed.
• 1974: The Scelbi-8H Mini-Computer was introduced.
• 1975: The MITS Altair 8800 was introduced.
• 1975: IBM introduced the IBM 5100, the 1st mass-produced personal computer.
• 1975: Microsoft Corporation founded.
• 1976: Cray Corp. introduces the worlds first Super Computer, the Cray-1.
• 1977: Apple Corporation founded.
• 1977: Radio Shack introduced their TRS-80.
• 1978: Visicalc was created. It was the 1st spreadsheet program.
• 1979: The 8086 microprocessor was introduced. (4mhz)
• 1981: Microsoft introduced MS-DOS version 1.0.
• 1981: Osborne releases first Portable Computer.
• 1981: IBM introduced the first IBM "PC" personal computer.
• 1981: The 80186 microprocessor was introduced.
• 1982: The 80286 microprocessor was introduced.
• 1984: The Apple Macintosh was introduced.
• 1984: IBM introduces the IBM PC Jr. and the IBM PC-AT.
• 1985: The term "hackers" was introduced.
• 1985: Microsoft introduced their first version of Windows.
• 1985: Intel introduced the 386 microprocessor.
• 1989: The 486 microprocessor was introduced.
• 1992: The 586 Pentium microprocessor was introduced.
• 1996: The Pentium Pro (X86) was introduced
• 1997: The Pentium II was introduced.
• 1999: The Pentium III was introduced.
• 2001: The Pentium IV was introduced.]

Scheduled to open on September 9, school was delayed a week because of the prevalence of polio.  Only Junior College began on time, although teachers were on duty during the week.  In his address to the teachers, Mr. Schlagle told of the board's efforts in behalf of employees' salaries.  Although property valuation had fallen in twenty years from 143 to 89 million dollars, everyone had received at least a 30% increase since 1942.  Those lower on the scale were given extra increments as high as 81% for some.  The average was 45% above that of 1941-42.

With the return of young men from service, Junior College faced a housing problem of 635 students enrolled in September, 347 were G.I.'s.  In all schools, substitutes were needed.  They would be employed, the superintendent said, for several years in diminishing numbers.  Forty-one new teachers came into the system in 1946.

At the close of the year, President Truman announced that World War II had ended officially.  The coal strike, threatening to cut electric power, was called off by John Lewis, and Christmas lights glowed as usual.  Miss Sadie B. Mann, long a teacher of literature in high school and Junior College, died on December 20.  She was the only woman to receive a Doctor of Literature from Teachers College at Emporia.

   1947

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History Site created on December 02, 2002
Page last updated: 18-Jun-2009