From Our Berlin Correspondent.
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Weights of a Serviceable Agricultural Automobile.
Engineer K_ von Meyenburg, of Zurich, contributes to the" Mitteilungen der Deutschen LandwirdschaftsGesellschaft " an interesting article on "Industrial Automobiles and Motorploughs." Ile suggests that a serviceable type of engine for an agricultural automobile should be of the two-stroke type, burn crude oil, develop 12 h.p., and weigh 200 kilo. Allowing the same weight for the accessory tanks, cooler and driving gear, 150 kilo. for the earth-cutter or share, and 200 kilo. for the vehicle, he fixes 750 kilo. (14 cwt. 86 lb.) as the limit weight. "Every pound in excess of this weight," he says, "is evil." Further, the road wheels must be as wide as possible; and he recommends driving wheels with retractile grippers, the wheel-pressure to be I kilo. for every square centimetre for work on fallow or tilled land. The automobile should he sprung, and show two tracks, i.e,, possess four wheels, two being steering wheels. The cutter or share should be easily demounted. Natuially, the automobile would occasionally serve as a locomobile for driving threshing machines, elevators and so on; also for transport. In short, von Meyenburg roughly sketches his idea of an ideal universal automobile for such work.
Helping the Berlin Horse-cab Driver.
On the representations of the horsecab owners, whose lines have not fallen unto them in pleasant places since the advent of the self-propelled cab, the Berlin President of Police has agreed that, henceforth, the night-tariff shall be lower. Up to the present, the tariff has been 70 pfennigs for the first 400 metres and 10 pfennigs for every additional 200 metres or fraction thereof, no matter how many persons were carried ; but the new night-tariff is the second-day tariff, i.e., 70 pfennigs for the first 600 metres and 10 pfennigs for every additional 300 metres or part thereof. The old night
tariff for horse-taxies was just double that of the first day-tariff. Petrol taxicabs work at night on the annulled night-tariff for horse cabs. Hence—to take an example—at night one can travel by horse-cab 1,500 metres for one mark, whereas a like fare entitles the passenger to travel 1,000 metres only by petrol-cab in the night hours. Still, this protective concession notwithstanding, the days of the horsecab are numbered in Berlin : it is but a. matter of time
Petrol-electric Coaches in the Maine District.
On local railway lines in the Mainz district a trial is being given to benzol-electric coaches; they are lighter than the accumulator-driven railway carriages and have a fargreater working radius. The German railway system can show quite a number of lines worked by means of Triebwagen, as coaches not drawn by steam locomotives are officially designated in the time-tables.