From Our Berlin Correspondent.
Page 6
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Berlin's only lady motorcab driver has retired.
Bavaria is to have yet another motorpost line, to wit, one connecting up Straubing, and Mengkoferi.
An Electric Tr-car.
The little car illustrated below is capable of carrying ilowt.. It should become popular in a city like Berlin, where current is cheap, as it can cover 40 miles On one charge.
A Spanish Motorbus Route.
Madrid and Getafa (8 miles apart) are to be connected up by a motorbus line. Getafa is a summer resort for the people of Madrid, but traffic during the year has never developed sufficiently to warrant the laying down of a railway.
Mail Motors in Asia Minor.
In Asia Minor interested parties are studying the question whether it is possible to replace the ordinary draught animals by freight automobiles, in the caravan transport from Persia and the interior ; at Mossul, automobiles are to be introduced to carry the mails from Mossul to the coast.
Dust.suction Vehicles for Berlin,
Director Skalla, of the Berlin StreetCleansing Department, informs me that he has entered into negotiations with several firms with a view to the making of dust-suction machines for the Berlin streets. Nothing of a practical nature has yet been submitted to him, although a Cologne firm, I understand, will shortly have a machine ready for work. The manager of the firm in question, with whom I have been in communication on the matter, elects to withhold technical particulars for the present. I again seize the opportunity to say that British firms who have anything of a really practical and thoroughly up-to-date character for cleaning streets might get in touch with Director SLilla, who is anxious to equip his department with modern plant.
The Worms Chamber of Commerce has petitioned the Railway Board to supplement traffic communications by motors.
Buessing Wagons for Russia.
Messrs Bussing, of Brunswick, have received an order from the Moscow Corporation for a 6-ton lorry. It appears that, in spite of the bad roads, a couple of Missing lorries in possession of a Moscow company have given very satisfactory results; hence the official order.
South African Opportunities.
The State Secretary of the German Colonial Office, who has been visiting the German Colonies in Africa, delivers the opinion that these districts offer a big field to the commercial motor as supplementary to the railway, but only as supplementary, and provided there exists " a grass steppe or sandy plain, which renders motor traffic possible without the building of a costly road."
A Municipal Tour.
The captain of the Bremen Fire Brigade, Herr Dittmann, and a number of members of the Corporation, have visited Berlin and Hanover for the purpose of studying the fire-extinguishing plant and rolling stock, and their report, which now lies before the Senate and Corporation, recommends strongly the adoption of self-propelled vehicles. Herr Dittmann estimates an annual sav:ng of ,:3oo--.4;775 by the suppression of horse-drawn vehicles.
Fire Brigaee Acquisitions.
Herr Reichel, Captain of the Berlin Fire Brigade, is a " whole-bog-ger " in regard to automobiles for fire extinguishing purposes, and he will lay before the Corporation shortly a voluminous document advocating the entire suppression of horse-drawn vehicles, on the grounds of economy and greater efficiency. Next April, the fire station in the Schdnlankstrasse will be fully and exclusively equipped with electric vehicles, and the Corporation will acquire similar plant for a new station in the Ung-arnstrasse.
Bavarian Restrictions.
In the district of Miesbach, in Upper Bavaria, a large number of roads have been barred to commercial motors during the winter months, whilst others remain open under certain conditions only. For instance : trailers are prohibited; rubber tires may not be used over roads which are not frozen hard or are not wholly free from snow; the maximum speed in inhabited places is fixed at 3 miles an hour, and about 8 elsewhere; the weight of vehicle must
not exceed tons, nor the useful load 6 cwt. Naturally, such conditions as these mean the cessation of commercialmotor trafficduring the winter. The District Council disclaims hostility to the motor as a modern instrument of traffic, and says it is actuated by a desire to save the roads and "protect the interests of wagon ,owners." Others may have different views,
Transport of Machine Guns.
Although the Berlin Motor Show was supposed to comprehend nothing but cars and accessories, one saw, here and there, exhibits which belonged rather to the freight section. Such an exhibit was a vehicle for the rapid transport of a machine gun, shown by the Deutsche Waffen-und Munitionsfabriken. It has a flat, rectangular, grey-painted body some 2 ft. deep, with a central well, extending from front to rear; this is provided to carry a machine gun, which weighs 5 cwt. dismounted. The well is closed at the back by a vertical, falling door, hinged to the flooring and fastened by a bolt at the top. The body consists of armour plating, which also hoods and protects the rear wheels. The plates forming the sides of the well and the body, respectively, are wide enough apart to afford ample locker space for ammunition, etc., and the lockers, which open at the sides and front corners, are covered in at the top with upholstered seats for half-a-dozen gunners, three on each side, who thus sit with their backs to the well. Access to the lockers can also be obtained from above, two of the seats on each side lifting up. On the front seat, neat to the chauffeur, there is room for two more gunners. For propelling power, the designers employ a four-cylinder, Daimler engine of 5oh.p.
With a vehicle of this kind a machine gun can be rushed up to a point where it is urgently needed, and also carried rapidly away out of reach of the enemy's fire after having served its immediate purpose. I understand that vehicles of this type have been recommended for adoption by the Prussian army.