In 1922, it was quite possible, and perhaps inevitable, for a magazine writer to say, “More automobiles and more concrete highways each year prophesy the elimination of congestion in large cities.”

This prophecy is to be found in a long article from Illustrated World for May of 1922, in which the author explains how the automobile will solve all our social problems, because “in a few short years congested cities will give way to great highway boulevards with their wonder shops and municipal and pleasure centers.”

Many scraps of history have been swept under the rug and forgotten, but Dr. Boli has such a fondness for them that he has hurriedly assembled a home for stray bits of history on the Web at a site called “The Historical Spectator.” So far there are four articles, all from the same magazine in the same year. But what fascinating scraps of forgotten history they are: the invention of the record changer, British Columbia’s switch from left-hand to right-hand driving, the introduction of charging by the minute for telephone service, and of course the glorious utopia to come promised by the automobile. As he finds more scraps, Dr. Boli will leave them in the same place.