The Industry in Central Europe.
Page 19
Page 20
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
German War Office Trials Postponed. German Makers Exploiting Markets in Russia and Brazil. Sanitary Wagons for Russia.
By Our Own Correspondent in Berlin.
German participators in the recent Brussels exhibition are terribly angry with the local Press for completely ignoring their exhibits. Well, we all have our troubles, and one of Germany's is that she is not popular in the Low Countries.
Ohl Cologne.
Cologne is making slow progress in the matter of the adoption of motorcabs. In 1908., the town could show 30 mechanical cabs against 180 of the horse-drawn variety, and now the number of the former has increased to 70. The Cologne .authorities exchange a motorcab licence against two horse-cab lieences.
German Military Subvention Trials to be Postponed.
The mechanical modifications required by the German War Office for the next batch of vehicular candidates for the subventionplaque are so numerous that the interested factories have found themselves obliged to ask for a postponement of the trials, which were originally fixed for next July. In the circumstances, the War Office purposes holding these trials three months later ; but it is on the cards that in July, or about that. time, extensive transport experiments with light lorries will be held under the superint2ndenee of cavalry officers.
To Exploit a Fore-carriage.
The Robinson Co., of Antwerp, which produces an electric-driven fore-carriage for lorries and the like—illustrated in the COMMERCIAL MOTOR, dated 13th January, has increased its capital to 230,000 francs.
Germany's Foreign Trade in Industrial Vehicles.
Germany's foreign trade in commercial motors during 1911 showed an all-round increase compared with that of 1910. She exactly doubled her imports, taking 134 vehicles as against 67, with a proportionate rise of value. France and Switzerland sent a greater tonnage across the border, particularly the latter. Germany admitted most of the vehicles under a duty of 13 marks per 100 kilo., or, roughly, 7s. ad. per cwt. Turning to exports, these rose from 225 to 345 vehicles, together with some 5 tons of parts. The value of the 1911 exports is given as about £204,500. The following were the chief customers :—Great Britain, 91,600 kilo. (80,300 in 1910); Italy, 95,900 kilo. (41,900) : Austro-Hungary, 153,600 kilo. (96,300); Euro pean Russia, 202,100 kilo. (117,200; European Turkey, 81,200 kilo. (17,700); Brazil, 149,400 kilo. (122,000). Notice Germany's progress in Russia and Brazil.
N.A.G. Sewage Wagons for Russia.
We reproduce a photograph of three tank automobiles which have been recently despatched by the Neue Automobil-Gesellschaft to Russia for the transport of refuse matter in a more. or less liquid state. Each tank is capacious enough to carry nearly 1000 gallons. For receiving and discharging loads of the kind the automobile is pre-eminently adapted, since, with the addition of a pumping contrivance and the requisite connecting gear for working it, the propulsive machinery also serves for filling and emptying the tank. In the present case, the pump is a double-working air-pump equal to relieving a_ cesspool of the maximum load within five minutes. Where, for some reason or another, a modern system of drainage has not been adopted, I recommend a vehicle of the kind as a positive hygienic necessity. The pumping machinery of the N.A.G. automobile lies, it will he noticed, between the forward end of the tank and the driver's seat. The chassis is the standard chain-driven type. Internal Communication by Publicservice Motar Vehicie.
There is a project afoot to cover the Erzgebirge district with motorbus lines. It bids fair to materialize, as the local authorities, after considerable meditation, have expressed their willingness to grant the long-pray eel-for concession. If a limited liability company for working the projected lines has not yet been formed, it will very shortly appear on the scene. The scheme includes short and long lines, and, by way of a beginning, they will radiate from Geyer and Ehrenfriedersdorf respectively. Great enthusiasm prevails amongst the inhabitants for the scheme.
Instructive Results in Bavaria.
Mr. L. Buchmann, the British Consul for Bavaria, reporting on the public-service motor lines of that country for the year 1910, states that the Bavarian postal administration now owns 141 motorbuses with which are worked 57 routes. The aggregate length of these lines amounts to 400 English miles. These services were first started in 1905. In 1909 they yielded a net profit of £6,000, which represents 8 per cent. on the invested capital.
German Professors on Motorplough.
Recently, at a meeting of the German Motor Engineering Society, Professor Dr. Marteny, ot Halle, delivered a lecture on motorploughs. In his opinion, the rotatory share will probably displace that dragged through the soil. He estimates Germany's total requirements in motor-ploughs at 3000. Referring to Professor Dr. Hollhack's lecture before the German Agricultural Society on motorploughs and agricultural machines, the following extracts are interesting :--" From the critical conditions of labour in the agricultural world, the need of an efficient power machine for cultivating the Land would appear more and more urgent from day to day. The steam and the electric plough can satisfy this demand in but a comparatively small degree, as the former is suitable only for heavy work on large, continuous, level tracts, and the latter suffers from its partial dependence upon the electric leads. It was the Improvement of the modern automobile-motor that first gave us a compact, independent power-generator, in which power and weight per power-unit can be maintained in a sufficiently favourable ratio."
The professor then dwells upon the loss of power involved in the transference ofmotor-driven wheels from the high road to the " soft, loose field," and admits that considerable progress in overcoming this difficulty has already been made, although a " really fundamental, generally-applicable solution of the motor-tillage problem is still to be found." For him, as was hinted in a former note, the greatest progress is embodied in the rotating shaft equipped with hoes and the like, which, while doing the work of the ordinary share somewhat better than the share under the time-honoured conditions, serves also, by virtue of its rotary movement, to assist in propelling the whole machine over the land under cultivation. He observes : "The general application of these new methods (embodied by machines of the type in question) would mean a quite extraordinary revolution in agricultural affairs ; and if the results hitherto achieved receive further conformation, we are on the eve of an unparalleled advance in landcultivation."