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From Our Berlin Correspondent.

12th March 1908, Page 25
12th March 1908
Page 25
Page 25, 12th March 1908 — From Our Berlin Correspondent.
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Messrs. Bussing have delivered a lorry and an omnibus to the experimental section of the Prussian Transport Service, and will shortly supply tour more lorries and a " train."

Ambulance Motor Exhibition.

On the occasion of the International Congress for Rescue Work, which is to be held next June at Frankfort-on-the. Main, the Frankfort Motor Club will organise a special show for self-propelled vehicles designed for ambulance operations. Kommerzienrat Kleyer, of the Adler Company, is on the executive committee, and he has placed the company's spacious velodrome at the disposal of would-be exhibitors.

" AUtomobilgeschwindigskeitsines sung."

Last Thursday, a meeting of motorcab drivers was held in Berlin to hear a • lecture on " Die Autornobilgeschwindigskeitsmessung und das kernmende Automobilgesetz " (Speed and the coining Motorcar Act), by Civil Engineer Fraund, who exhibited a special type of tachometer and, amongst other things, insisted that the maximum speed should be raised from 15 to 30 kilometres an hour for municipal work. The drivers went one better, for in their resolution they expressed a wish for 35 kilometres (nearly 22 miles an hour), as, at this rate of travelling, it was possible to stop dead within three yards. What position legislators will assume towards the maximum demanded remains to be seen ; it is highly improbable that a concession will be made to this extent.

L-udw. Loewe and Co., the great Berlin firm whose works and tool_ machine specialities formed the subject of an illustrated article in the issue of " TIIE COMMERCIAL MOTOR" for last week, has just declared a dividend of 16 per cent, on a gross profit of 2,215,813 marks as against 2,046,703 in 1906. A sum of 805,969 marks is writtenoff (a round 200;000 marks more than in the preceding twelvemonth), whilst 43,719 marks are carried forward. flow this concern has developed may be judged from the dividends paid from 1932 to date 10, to, 12, 16 and 16 per •cent. respectively. I hear that business, .which became very dull towards the end of 1907, has revived, Febntary's results having been satisfactory.

Comparative Results.

In a recent conversation with the representative of a firm whose speciality is a front-driven tri-car, I asked him whether he could place at my disposal any testimonial from a big Berlin house demonstrating the economical superiority of the automobile in question to a horse-drawn wagon, and he showed me a statement from the Deutsche Kabelwerke _Aktiengesellschaft (German Cable Works, Ltd.), which I think intereking enough to record here. This company purchased a tri-car for transporting light loads up to 4ewt. from its headquarters in Berlin to suburban customers, work performed formerly by a two-horse van. The company had supplied its own van, but hired a pair of horses, with driver, from a local carrier at a cost of 16.5o marks (16s. 6d.) a day. Owing

to the great distances to be covered, the vehicle required practically one whole day for carrying out a full load and returning empty ; and, although the tricar has to make three trips to transport the same load as that carried by the wagon in one run, these journeys are made so rapidly that the driver has ample time to keep his car clean and in perfect running order without working beyond the usual hours. By this three-trips-daily arrangement the company can do what it could not do before when using the van—namely, deliver "express" orders received by telegraph. As to working costs, the Aktiengesellschaft gives them as follow :—Driver, 4 marks a day ; petrol, 60-80 pfennigs; oil and polishing material, 20-40 pfennigs. The total is therefore 5 marks (as many shillings) a day. Subtracting the running costs from the expense of working the horsed van, the company saves NS. 6d. every day. As the purchase price of the tri-car was £120, it pays for itself in 210 working days. At the time of writing this testimonial, the company had been working the vehicle for four months, so that half of the purchase price was already saved. Repairs, it appears, were of a trifling character, and mostly due to the inexperience of the driver, who was originally a packer in the company's employ, and, until he took charge of the tri-car, he had had no practical experience with a motor vehicle. Wisely enough, the company bought a vehicle exactly adapted to its requirements. Many trading concerns invest in the wrong class of machine, and then, should the economic results fail to answer expectations, lay the blame on the motor.


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