From Our Berlin Correspondent.
Page 15
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Elegant Niotorcabs for Berlin.
When writing on the big financial loss on last year's working of Berlin's electric cabs, I referred to the elegance and attractiveness of many of the petrol taxis. Perhaps a couple of illustrations will help the English reader to see how some Berlin proprietors are bidding for the cab-using public. They represent new types,built for cab owners by the Neue Automobil-Gessellschaft, and look more like private vehicles than the hired sort. The chassis includes a 4-cylinder engine which, with a bore of 83 millimetres to a stroke of 120, gives 20 h.p. under the brake, and is the firm's touring model strengthened for the wear and tear of town work. It is possible to travel at 40 miles an hour with this double
phmton. Recently, the N.A.G. delivered to a cab-owner chassis with
motors giving 40 h.p. The closed cab is also popular, and a picture of that. type is given herewith.
Omnibus de Luxe Line in Berlin: An Experiment.
The Berlin General Omnibus Co. have inaugurated a so-called service de luxe with three Marienfelde singledeckers carrying 23 passengers each, seven of whom find standing accommodation in an enclosed rear extension. Neither in internal fittings nor in exterior decoration and paint-work do these vehicles suggest 'luxury," unless one can discover it in American cloth and a primrose-coloured body but the fare certainly does suggest that idea, since .50 pfennigs (Csl. of our money) must be paid for a distance for which the fare, by rail, is only 20 pfennigs. Half the distance may be travelled for 2,5 pfennigs, but no further sub-division of fare stages is to he made. I do not anticipate a long life for the line. The general conditions of traffic in Berlin are dead against the success of such an undertaking. One of the vehicles which passed me to-day had apparently done the entire 30-minute run for the benefit of a solitary passenger, who sat " Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide, wide sea " of American cloth! Of course, the buses are vastly cheaper than the motor-taxis, and I dare say that many a citizen who might otherwise have cabbed to some point along the route will gladly board the 'bus de luxe, and save money without losing much time, the single-deckers being very speedy.
Hamburg's New Electric Towing Car for Fire Engines.
Hamburg's fire engines are towed by electricity, not driven : the front pair of wheels of the fire engine rest on a grooved carriage which is attached to the tail of a Marienfelde electric-propelled car, with a rear drive on the Lohner-Porsche system. The idea underlying this curious combination is seemingly to keep the old horse-engines in service while giving them the higher speed obtainable from
mechanical power at a comparatively moderate outlay. As soon as the old steam engines are worn out, the electric " tug " will presumably disappear, Hamburg will then have self-propelled vehicles only for fire-extinguishing work.
The St. Petersburg Motor Show..
Knowing the keen interest taken by TIIE COMM ERCIAL MOTOR in the possibilitie.s of Russia as an automobile market, I take note of a communication on the recent motor show held at St. Petersburg, notwithstanding the attempts of a few interested agents to prevent it from realizing. The communication in question hasbeen made to that useful body the " Standing Exhibition Commission for German Industry," whose business it is to see that German productions are not hid under a bushel, but kept well before the buying public in
foreign countries. First, the Commission learns that " the general results of the show exceeded all expec tations." Remarks the informant " As interested parties had originally no high opinion of the organization, and, on that account, manifested reserve in consigning vehicles specially designed for the show, the material forwarded was, indeed, not splendid, yet good enough. The number of visitors may be estimated at some 17,000. And the number of sales effected through the show probably reached 50 at the least. The common representative of two big German firms sold over a dozen vehicles, and almost exclusively to people outside his own circle of customers. Nor does the Russo-Baltic Wagon Factory, the only inland manufacturing concern, appear to have dons badly. Dealers say that the show has materially strengthened the interest of the Russian buying public, and there is justification for expecting a lively business later on."