OUR EYE-WIT] IN GERMANY.
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ONLY 10 months had elapsed from the time our representative had attended the Berlin Show of 1925 to the time when he again set foot in the German capital, but even in that comparatively short period a considerable change in the general conditions of living and business could be observed, although not all were on the surface. To the casual visitor Berlin might now appear quite a prosperous city, and compared with London, in its present state of darkness owing to coal restrictions, it is bright and cheerful, with flaring electric signs at every point of the compass, well-filled caf:Iis and a gay night life extending well into the small hours of the morning, but much of this apparent well-being is only on.the surface.
One of the greatest indications of flourishing trade and general prosperity is traffic, both in goodsand passengers, and of this, compared with London and Paris, there is still astonishingly little. Commercial vehicles of any size are so scarce as to be almost conspicuous individually, most of the vehicles employed for trade being light parcelcarriers -with tiny engines, and a sprinkling of battery electrics. The only really large fleet, with the exception of the buses, appears to be that owned by the Reichspost. This includes both petrol-propelled and battery-driven machines kept in really good condition.
Taxicabs are in profusion, but they are expensive and, consequently, cannot' be used to the same extent as, say, in London or Paris. It is interesting to nbte that there are three distinct tariffs for these vehicles, the luxe, mittel and klein—in other words, the luxury, middle and small—these tariffs being based according to the class of cab employed, the luxury class being large vehicles which will hold five or six people, and amongst them we noted a nuthber of Rumplers. Even those in the middle category are larger and far more comfortable than our London taxicabs, but the lowest class consists of small machines (oneseaters and the like), such as the Hanomag and the taxi sidecar.
It is interesting to note that the Berlin Motor Cab Co. have recently ordered 500 battery electric taxicabs, of which some are already on the streets. These machines weigh only one ton, complete with battery, and have a radius of 120 kilometres per charge. The accumulators are contained in a bonnet at the front and are lifted out when necessary by means of a crane. They are known as the A.F.A., and are manu
factured by Accumulatoren Fabrik Aktiengesellschaft.
A single motor is employed, this being situated under the driver's floorboards and driving through a spur reduction gear to a propeller shaft, with flexible disc joints, leading to an axle of the ordinary car type, but having a long combined radius and torque rod at each side. The panels are of beaten metal, coachpainted. At each side of the windscreen is a red direction-indicating disc, the two being mounted together on a single rod which can be slid to either side by the driver. These machines are known as the D.E.W., and are also sold with van bodies.
Private cars, like commercial vehicles, are few in number ; in fact, it is not an uncommon thing to be able to see only three or four so far as the eye can reach in a thoroughfare the size of, say, Oxford Street.
Despite this comparatively small traffic and the consequent lack of traffic congestion, the methods of control which have been instituted throughout Berlin are most thorough, far more so even than in London. Whether this be due merely to systematization or to a hope that the near future will see a great augmentation of traffic is a matter very difficult for the observer to decide.
At every important crossing there
are three-light regulators (similar to those employed in Piccadilly with a control box at the top of St. James's Street). In addition to these there are several traffic towers, 30 ft. or so high, whilst to prevent vehicles leaving the proper side of the road in order to cut corners, at every important crossing or turning there is a warning beacon sunk into the roadway and resembling the cupola of a fort, this being made of thick glass and illuminated electrically. The idea appears to be both easy to carry out and practicable, and vastly better than central standards, for, in case of a skid, the raised dome of the device, whilst possibly giving the occupants of a vehicle a jar through the sudden raising of the wheel, would not do any material damage, whereas a standard usually causes considerable damage in the event of a collision.
On the whole, prices appear to be considerably lower than formerly. It must, of course, be remembered that our previous visit was not long after the deflation period, when the ,average German had not become accustomed to dealing in single marks in place ' of thousands, and it has naturally taken some little time for a true appreciation of the par value of the Renten mark to become general.
Food, at least in the restaurants, is still rather more expensive than in England. Clothing is about the same. Travel is somewhat dear, and the prices of commercial:vehicles and private cars are still, in the main, above those prevailing in our own coun
try, although here, again, they are lower than previously, and with anything like a fair output may become competitive in our overseas markets.
It is only fair to say that everywhere we were received with the utmost courtesy, given every possible facility for obtaining information, ta king photographs, making sketches, etc., and assisted by total strangers in any little difficulties which cropped up *hen travelling. Even at the customs the fact that we were Britishers took us through without the slightest •delay, which did not seem to apply to other nationals.
Hotel accommodation in Berlin is excellent and much cheaper than it is for its equivalent in Paris. For instance, in the Hotel Continental one can obtain a suite of large rooms with private bathroom, half a dozen electric lights per room, central heating, telephone and hot and cold water in each for 12s. per day per room, not counting the bathroom.
The Berlin N.A.G. covered-top-deck buses, run by the A.B.O.A.G. concern, appear to be giving very satisfactory service and are being maintained in excellent condition. They run quietly and smoothly, and as their centre of gravity is kept very low they do not appear to have skidding propensities; in fact, we did not see a single skid by one during the whole period of our visit. They are even lower built than our London double-deckers, this being permitted by using a narrow gangway at one side of the utiper deck, which is dropped 8 ins, below the rest of .the floor, this top portion projecting into the lower saloon, where it comes immediately over one set of seats. We will now consider some of the points in German motor-vehicle design whefe they differ considerably from standard practice in Britain.
Take, for instance, lubrication. As a whokh., much more use is now being made of oil, and in a previous article we have referred to the Bowen centralized system, which is employed on several chassis, the points lubricated extending even to the radiator trunnion bearing and the inner bearing for the front-brake camshafts. Wick lubricators are used in some cases, the wicks being carried in oil boxes of ample capacity. On a private-car chassis we noticed oil boxes at the spring ends, the latter sliding in slotted rollers, whilst the oil boxes were connected direct to spring gaiters.
The majority of radiators have separate couplings for the water connections, so that it is unnecessary' to interfere with the hose couplings when removing
the radiator. This is a point which has for long been advocated in The Commercial Motor.
Suspension is invariably by laminated springs, now generally underslung, and, in a few cases, equipped with supplementary leaves beneath the main spring, thus not only making the spring adjustable to load, but assisting in the prevention of bouncing.
In the N.A.G. and Faun chassis cam-type spring
pads are provided for the spring ends, these closely resembling the type employed on the Bristol chassis and giving the effect of a short stiff spring under load. The D.A.A,G. novel system of suspension by inturned quarter-ellipties appears to have been replaced by a more orthodox type. It is of interest to note that this same method of springing is now employed on the new Bumpier car, and, incidentally, in this vehicle the rear wheels are mounted independently upon long arms pivoted on a frame cross-bearer ; thus the movement of one wheel does not affect the other, and the unsprung weight is considerably reduced. The pivoted arms also act as radius and torque rods, and the ends of the quarter-elliptic springs are permitted to slide in the stub axles.
One form of servo-braking system which would appear to be highly satisfactory consists of a geartype oil pump driven from the transmission and with leads to a cylinder, containing two pistons, at each side of the chaSsis. Normally, the oil circulates freely through a bypass' but if this bypass be closed by the brake pedal the oil is immediately subjected to pressure, and, by forcing out the two pistons in each cylinder, operates the front and rear brakes simultaneously. It seems to us that having gone so far as to embody an hydraulicservo of this description, the designers might have gone a step further and used the pump itself as a brake. Such an application would appear in itself to possess important possibilities.
• A neat feature on one pedal brake is a fork and slide with a 'compression spring between them, so that rapid application of the brake will not give undue shock, this being taken up by a spring. The idea is quite good, but the snag is that, at the best of tithes, the travel of a brake pedal is limited and the amount of lost motion in it must be kept to a minimum.
Worm and sector, or worm and wheel adjusters for brakes appear to be popular, and there is no reason why they should not be. The only point is the extra cost of manufacture.
Keys are employed to a very limited extent only. A large number of shallow
splines makes a far nlore practicablejob and provides a simple form of adjustment, which is 'Wally absent when key S are used. With splines of this type it is essential that the levers. etc., secured to them should be nipped firmly into position, for the slightest rock will quickly wear the points of contact.
A. favourite form of universal joint on the lighter models consists of reinforced-rubber links, which take the place of the complete disc. We have even seen these links employed, on a few ment required is not excessive. Where employed it is almost essential to provide some form of centring of the heavy bus chassis, where the cardan movedevice.
Increasing use is being made of single-disc clutches, although the internal cone, usually faced with an asbestos-fabric friction material, is still popular.
We noted only one really unusual type of clutch. This was the Protos, in which a ring of leather is built up in laminated form, the individual pieces of leather projecting at right angles from the carrier plate. The outer side of this ring i cut V-shape and wedges into a similarly shaped circular slot in the other portion of the clutch.
In discussing with a representative of the Co. some points regarding their Diesel engine we were rather interested to learn how these engines are started, particularly in cold weather. This is facilitated by filling the radiator with hot water, whilst, in other cases, a spirit burner is employed to heat the exhaust pipe, which has a jacket leading to the air intake. The a,ctual turning of the engine is performed by an electric starter, and, of course, a decompression device is embodied in the design. One or two makes of vehicle are equipped with green or frosted glass visors, fitted at an angle above the windscreens and serving to prevent the driver from being dazzled by the rays of the sun when driving towards it.
Amongst the light parcelears the two-stroke engine appears to be extremely popular, but we noted only one four-cylindered engine in this class which could be used in a vehicle of moderate capacity. This engine is known as the Ilse. Each piston in it is a doubletype, with a lower portion of much larger diameter acting as an air compressor.
Inlet and exhaust ports are provided in the cylinder walls, and for the inlet there are actually two ports, the higher of which is for air only, and the lower for mixture. The effect is that on the down stroke the inlet air port opens first and the pure air blows out the exhaust gases, after which the lower port is opened and a fresh supply of explosive mixture enters. • Dealing with particular vehicles and appliances, we noted several of unusual interest. For instance, there
is the road tractor, which is capable of drawing 12i-ton loads and is provided with a two-cylindered Diesel engine of Benz make. It is claimed that this machine can be run at 30 per eent, of the fuel cost of a petrol engine.
It is seldom that one can find such an elaborate two-purpose vehicle as the two-purpose Elite which we examined. In this the well at the back is lined with detachable aluminium panels. There are two loading platforms and a large hinged panel -at the rear. When desired, the upper part of the rear por-, tion of the body can be detached and by substituting another the vehicle is turned into a large and luxurious limousine. It is priced at only f585 with the full body fittings.
e36 • The N.A.G. concern markets a special wagon for carrying small cattle. It is divided into three sections, and the back, which is made in two sections hinged in its centre, drops down to form a long ramp.
One of our illustrations depicts a most unusual type of small tractor which is designed to be used in conjunction with hand barrows or small carts. Actually it is made in two models with 8 h.p. engines. The drive is taken forward to the front wheels from an engine behind the seat, and when in use the back of the tractor is clipped to the axle of the cart, the rear wheel being off the ground.
Hansa Lloyd make an industrial battery-electric truck for 14-ton loads. This has one motor, a solid driving axle, and is priced at f180 complete. Some of these have been sold to the New York Harbour Board.
One special type of Hansa Lloyd petrol vehicle has been designed for carrying long articles, such as lengths of steel, timber, tubing, etc. For this purpose the cab is narrowed, and each of tile front wings is specially strengthened by
channel -/steel brackets, whilst Inounted above them are pads with hinged stakes and chains. The body itself has stake sides of T-section steel.
Two rubber-link hangers, similar to those on certain cardan joints, are employed for each bearer arm of the engine on the chassis. Another feature of this vehicle is n thin plate on the cylinder jacket, which blows out if the water freezes.
The new low-level M.A.N. chassis has double transmission-brake drums giving ample power without large diameter. The final drive is by external spur gears and an interesting feature is that each brake drum is in the centre of the outer of the twin wheels at each side, where it does not interfere with the drive.
An extremely neat little van to carry 15-cwt. loads haa been deviscid from the well-known Elanomag chassis, It is a forward-dash model with the driver beside the engine. It has a 10 b.b.p. engine, threespeeds and reverse, no differential and a separate brake on each rear wheel.
How the Knorr brake cylinder is mounted on the N.A.G. front-wheel stub axle.