From Our Berlin Correspondent.
Page 12
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Pending Trials.
I learn that the next subvention trials, held under the supervision of the NVar Office, will not take place conjointly with the industrial trials to be organised by the Imperial Motor Club in May. The former tests are down for April. It is suggested that it would be to the advantage of the " heavy " industry if both trials coincided in point of time and, perhaps, route, "Antistaubit."
In consequence of the dry cold weather (on the 29th December, in the outlyingdistricts of Berlin, 36 degrees of frost on the Fahrenheit scale!), the dust in Berlin has proved a considerable nuisance, especially with the scavenging machines and sweepers at work. The use of water would, of course, have converted the city's streets into a vast skating rink and brought wheel traffic to a standstill, so Magis. tratsbaurat Szalla, who is in charge of the street-cleansing department, has had to cast about for some non-freezing layer. Experiments with a nonfreezingliquid called "Antistaubit, anti_ dustite " have, I hear, answered very well for cobbles, macadam and asphalt. Despite the terrible cold, no ice was formed, and the machines cleaned the streets without raising any dust.
Excessive Smoke from Autos.
The German Supreme Court of Appeal (Kammergericht) has virtually given judgment to the effect that the chauffeur or driver of an automobile is bound to take steps to prevent nuisance at any time from excessive smoke. Hence, should a motorcab from any cause emit an excess of smoke, the driver lutist stop and correct the evil. Al! necessary repairs to this end, which he himself can execute, are to be carried out on the spot, unless the requisite tools fail or the execution of the repairs would occasion an obstruction in traffic. In one case, a defendant has been acquitted on the ground that the excess was caused by the fouling of a valve spring during the journey, and that it would have been necessary to dismember the parts in order to correct the evil—quite a half-hour's work. The Public Prosecutor was not satisfied with this verdict, and took the case to the Kammergericht, which has ordered a fresh trial.
The Harzburg Transport Trials: A Buessing Train with Side Shoots.
Touching the transport trials with a Buessing train in the neighbourhood of Brunswiek and the Spa of Harzburg by the road surveyors of the Duchy, of which I 'forwarded an account shortly before Christmas, I now send illustrations of the vehicles requisitioned by the authorities for those trials. Both self-propelled wagon and trailer, built
for a collective load of to tons, are fitted with an ingenious arrangement of lateral shoots for rapid unloading ; the photographs show the slides open and closed respectively. As to the automobile chassis, nothing need be said except that it embodies the Brunswick Ii rm shrtest mechanical improvements-, which have already been described in your columns. It will be noticed that the tractor alone possesses a contrivance for affording some shelter to the men in charge from annoyances of weather ; the rerial perch on the trailer is wholly exposed.
As I stated in mv former note, the purpose of the trials was to compare animal and mechanical haulage, as well as to ascertain the wear and tear of automobile trains of the kind illustrated on the high roads of the Duchy of Brunswick, where, at present, such combinations are not tolerated. Further trials, under average working conditions, will shortly be 11(.1(1 there. Electric Omnibuses in Berlin: favourable Results.
Herr Stavenow, chief traffic-inspector to the Grosse Berliner StrassenbahnGesellschaft, tells me that the electric omnibuses which the daughter company has had on trial for some months past have given satisfactory results. Seventeen vehicles of this class are working over lines A and B, that is, between the Stettin Railway Station and Kaiser Friedrich Plat, and Arnim Plate and Kreuzberg respectively. As vet though, the directors have not de:. mutely decided to include the electro bus in the permanent rolling stock. Last summer, at the time when the electrobus first appeared in connection with the company, I furnished a descrintion of its general arrangements.
The Nacke Company Protests Against the Iniquitcus German Liability Bill.
Following the lead of the workmen c f the Eisenach and Adler companies, the employees of the Automobilfabrik E. Nricke, of Coswig, which factory makes a speciality of lorries, have drawn up a long protest against the German Motor Liability Bill. Inoue passage they deal with those absurd deputies who, being utterly unaware of the fact that in Most German shops the number of workmen and working hours have been greatly reduced, in advocating the measure,
have referred to the prosperous " automobile industry. This fact ought to be known to deputies who pretend to legislate on the matter. Anyhow, it was beyond all question that the passing, of the measure Would seriously cripple a strugglingindustry. The present laws were sufficient. A better training of chauffeurs was preferable to special legislation. Existing chauffeur schools, through which, for pecuniary reasons, pupils were passed as quickly as possible, should give way to State or \Innicipal institutions, not founded with an eye to the main chance, but for the purpose of giving the men it thorough training-. The taxes now levied on motorists might be applied to the establishment and maintenance of Government or Municipal schools, if the Bill went on to the statute book, which the workmen would deeply deplore in their own interest and in that of the struggling automobile industry, let the net proceeds of the motor taxation go towards a fund for in system of compulsory insurance.