From Our Berlin Correspondent.
Page 8
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In a previous note we stated that the Hanover Building Company had resolved to go in for the motor industry, having decided to acquire works in possession of the Hanover Fertiliser Manufacturing Company and remodel them for that purpose. The necessary alterations are now complete, and the branch company will shortly begin manufacturing with a capital of some 4:20,000. We understand that the company will make a speciality of commercial vehicles.
Berlin's second motorbus line, opened by the Berlin General Omnih_is Company on September 3, connects the north-west of the city with the centre, namely, Moabit and Alexanderplatz, which constitute the termini; the latter is an exceptionally busy spot with heavy traffic. The new line runs through the leading thoroughfare known as tinter den Linden, which com mences at the Tiergarten 's Hyde Park—and expands at its eastern end into the Schlossplatz, containing the Royal Palace, the Cathedral, and other buildings of note. Four buses will work the line to begin with, and it is proposed to maintain the service between 5.30 and i a.m. We may mention that the first motorbus line is
yielding good profits, whereas the costs of the horsed vehicle's are " increasing in a greater proportion than the receipts " (vide official report for August).
Austria.
The motorising of Budapest's postal service has proceeded so rapidly that nearly all the rolling stock now consists of self-propelled vehicles. Boxes are cleared by motor-tricyclists, and motor vans of various sizes are used for cartingmails to the stations. The clearance system is further simplified and accelerated by the letter-box and collecting bag possessing mechanical contrivances which open or close them by mutual re-action ; a single movement of the collector's arm suffices to effect the one or the other of these operations. We also learn that in another Austro-Ilungarian town, namely, Graz, the postal authorities are making preparations to have the entire collection done by means of motors.
In the report of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for 1905 (Vienna) occurs the following : —" The manufacture of omnibuses and freight vehicles has hitherto lagged somewhat behind, perhaps with the exception of one firm, which receives numerous orders from the mother firm abroad, and hence is able to acquire in this branch the most modern, practical experience that alone guarantees sufficient reliability in working." The Daimler Company is evidently meant here, and one might almost infer from the wording of the sentence that the daughter-company had been kept alive by the maternal feeding. " The chief obstacle in the way of a more general adoption of commercial and freight motors consists primarily in the sluggishness of many home circles, which wait year after year for sensational mechanical novelties, instead of stimulating and furthering the motor industry by giving a trial to motors as they ore."