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From Our Berlin Correspondent.

12th August 1909, Page 14
12th August 1909
Page 14
Page 14, 12th August 1909 — From Our Berlin Correspondent.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Scheneberg, a rising suburb on the western flank of Berlin, is to have an .electro-omnibus service, for the purpose of feeding the projected elevated railway connecting the borough with Berlin.

Compared with this time last year. the Berlin General Omnibus Co. has an excess of receipts amounting to some 650,000 marks, together with a fall of 100,000 in the expenditure, i.e., a plus difference of 750,000 marks.

"Buessing" at the German Manceuvres.

At the recent big manceuvres of the Garde Corps, trials were made with four armed vehicles, two of French make and as many of German • amongst the latter is a Buessing omnibus chassis with lorry superstructure for carrying a machine-gun. The Buessing is unprotected, whereas the other three vehicles are armoured. Naturally, owing to the great difference in weight, the Buessing can travel much the fastest.

"Motor Ploughing."

Under the above heading there appears in your last issue an extract from " Freeman's Journal." I may point out that mechanical ploughing by means of a couple of traction engines has already been practised for some time past in Germany. Indeed, to what extent mechanical ploughing takes place may be judged from the fact that, in 1907, over 800 steamplough locomotives (to give them their German name) were in use. John Fowler and Co.. who have branches at Magdeburg, Berlin and elsewhere in Germany, are amongst the specialists supplying engines for the work. But electric power seems likely to offer steam, to say nothing of manual labour, a brisk competition. The electric system can be worked with two power-vehicles or with one power.

vehicle and a so-called anchor-wagon, the plough being hauled to and fro between the stationary units on each side of the field. With the Editor's permission, I may return to the matter again, dealing with it in an illustrated article ; in the meantime, however, I give the following relative costs of ploughing an acre--a Prussian acre, by the way, contains 2,553.3 square metres—to a depth of 14 Prussian inches (a Prussian inch equals 26.15 millimetres) with mechanical and animal powers :—With horses, over 13 marks ; with oxen, 10.20; with hired steam plough, 12.50; with steam plough in own possession, 10.80; with electric-plough, 7.90. [The paragraph from The Freeman's Journal " was

culled '' by us in a spirit of satire.— ED.

"Beneficent" Automobiles.

A Duesseldorf restaurateur made a discovery analogous to that recorded on page 459 of your last week's issue, concerning " a fruit-grower in Normandy," and communicated the facts of the case to a German paper over a year back, although the discovery itself had been made two years previously. Herr Ludwig Heissmann, the restaurateur in question, lost in 190.5 a number of fruit-trees through the ravages of caterpillars and the like. Now, his two sons are enthusiastic cyclists, and, to please them, he had part of his garden laid out as a track, on which they played at pace-following, a motor-roadster of 2 h.p. being nsed for pace-making purposes. Not being .skilfu] in the handling of the motorcycle, they frequently over-oiled it, and filled the garden with a heavy exhaust. That occurred in the summer of 1906, and towards the fall there was a marked absence of caterpillars in the garden, which absence his gardener attributed to the petrol fumes. In 1907, Herr Heissmann had a record crop of fruit and show of flowers.

An Aachen Company.

A new company has been formed, at Aachen, with a capital of one million marks (E50,000), for the purpose of producing and working motors and motor-driven vehicles of all kinds, more especially the industrial sort. The Maschinenbauanstalt Altenessen Aktien-Gresellschaft is financially interested to the extent of 880,000 marks in shares. The company will trade as the " Motoren und Lastwagen AktienGesellschaft, Aachen."

More About the Russian Market.

Writing of the kinds of industrial vehicles suitable for Russia, a Moscow correspondent of a German trade organ observes : " As to omnibuses, the lighter class, with seats for 8-12 persons, appears to be best adapted for hotel work, and vehicles with 16-18 seats for public conveyances. Motorcabs will probably find an entrance. [British cabs are already on order for Warsaw.—En.] Motor ambulance-carriages also have buyers. Business can be done in fire-brigade vehicles, but I must point out that here the opinions of authoritative persons have such weight that there can scarcely be any question of cutand-dried arrangements. On the other hand, catalogued transport automobiles can be sold., but the maker who delivers to Russia must allow for the overweighting of axles. A 6-ton lorry is tolerably sure to he handled as a 7-tonner, despite all warnings. Special attention must be paid to the springing of wagons. As a rule, foreign springs soon give way, and are replaced by Russian makes. In my opinion, springs designed for Russia should be 20 per cent, stouter than those intended for Germany.

"Although we possess rich sources of petrol (sic), our petrol is considerably heavier than that in Germany. A petrol of 0.710 s. g., which is heavy for Germany, would be the lightest of brands with us. We usually work with petrol of 0.720 to 0.740 s. g. Makers who sell in Russia would do well to arrange for the consumption of the heavy spirits.

" A very widespread mistake is to fit the wheels with tires of too narrow a width. A book of instructions concerning the handling of lamps, magnets, etc., should not he forgotten—in Russian or French,

" A few words on the roads : the roads are not numerous, hut mostly good. Their surface shows a breadth of 5-7 metres (16-23 ft.), tolerably level, only somewhat weak for heavy automobiles. When under repair, they are strewn over the entire width with metal, and much time elapses before the steam-roller comes. . . Bridges are mostly of wood and good —constructed for a maximum weight of 300 poods (5 tons) per wagon."

Tags

Organisations: Garde Corps
Locations: Warsaw, Berlin, Moscow, Aachen

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