German Postal Motors.
Page 12
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The German postal authorities have decided to make an increased use of motor vehicles in connection with the collection and distribution of both letters and parcels. One of the most recent vehicles to be adopted, after a severe trial
extending over ten days, and covering many of the hardest routes in the Capital, is a two-cylinder 8h.p. N.A.G. motor van, designed to carry a load of 1,5ookilos. This vehicle,
which was constructed at the works of the Neue Automobil Gesellschaft, of Berlin, has a maximum speed slightly in excess of 12 miles an hour, and can readily ascend gradients of in in. The body has been built in accordance with the special instructions and specification of the Director of the Imperial Post, and the machine continues to give its proprietors great satisfaction. Amongst other types of vehicles with which the Berlin postal authorities are making experiments, with a view to definite selection, the single-cylinder 3h.p. N.S.U. tricycle carrier, with a load capacity of lookilos., excluding weight of driver, deserves prominent mention. It will be seen from the photograph which we reproduce that a box of neat design is fitted in front of the driver, and deco. rated with the Imperial Arms. Machines of this type are now being tested for the conveyance of letters between the head and branch offices, and the opinion is generally held in Berlin that it will not be long before collection is entirely done by motortricyclists. At present letters are collected by ordinary tricycles, but the obvious advantages of mechanical power are now admilled even by the most unfavourable critics of self-propelled vehicles. In our issue of August toth we gave some particulars and an illustration of the Cologne postal omnibus, on the Krieger system, this being a use peculiar to that city. It is reported from Cologne that the low running and maintenance cost of this vehicle compares most satisfactorily with all previous records for steam or petrol vehicles.
ortland St., W.