In the summer of 1905, when cars were uncommon and roads were rough, Thomas Edison took an automobile tour of central Pennsylvania.

In Lancaster, he stayed overnight at the Stevens House.

In Harrisburg, he blasted road conditions.

"You have the finest farms and the worst roads in Pennsylvania of any State in the Union," he said, as reported in the Aug. 1, 1905, Lancaster New Era.

The roads were poor not because of a lack of cash and proper materials, Edison said, but because of an insufficiency of brain power.

"If you took the brains needed and combined them with the material you have here you could have the finest roads in the country," Edison said.

New Jersey's sand roads were better than Pennsylvania's paved roads, he claimed.

"The trouble with you Pennsylvania people is that you make flat and level roads, with no crown in the centre, and when it rains the water gathers in the centre of the road and forms pools that leave great mud holes," Edison observed.

Roy Beman, chief clerk of the state Highway Department, replied to Edison in the next day's New Era.

He disagreed that Pennsylvania's roads were the worst. Still, he admitted, they were pretty bad.

"Our highways have always been in the hands of men who may have been eminently successful in farming or other pursuits, but who have not, as a rule, made a study of road-building," he said.

Beman bragged that within a few years Pennsylvania's roads "will stand in another class. With 100,000 miles of roads, it will take time to produce results which will be commensurate with the size and importance of the State...."

So here we are, more than a century later, and Pennsylvania, indeed, is known for having "another class" of roads.

Thanks to Tim Niesen, of Millersville, for adding this anecdote to a previous item he contributed about Edison's auto trip through Columbia in 1918.


875 Atlas scenes in full color


In addition to maps of county municipalities, the "1875 Historical Atlas of Lancaster County" includes dozens of sepia engravings of farmhouses, covered bridges and other well-known structures.

Richard Danz, owner of Old World Collectibles, decided that the engravings would be even more attractive in color.

So he employed Ashleigh Leiter, a Pennsylvania College of Art and Design student, to use watercolor to enliven the engravings from an original copy of the atlas.

Now Danz is selling digitized versions of these engravings in various sizes from his home shop at 263 Little Creek Road and at Building Character, 342 N. Queen St.

Notes Marty Hulse, proprietor at Building Character, "The never-before-released colorized versions bring the images to life."


New Providence marker missing


Janet Baker, of New Providence, has been thinking about the historic sign missing from the facade of the Watt & Shand department store discussed several weeks ago in this space.

She knows about another missing sign, nearer and dearer to her.

There was an accident on Route 222 South at New Providence several years ago. A vehicle knocked down the old blue and yellow state marker that read "New Providence (formerly Black Horse): founded 1730."

"Someone in the crowd said they'd take it home and fix it, but it never came back," Mrs. Baker notes. "That's part of our history and it provokes me no end that it's gone."

These missing signs belong to the community. They should be returned to the community.

Contact The Scribbler: jbrubaker@lnpnews.com or 291-8781