From Our Berlin Correspondent.
Page 6
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A Self-Propelled, Street-Cleansing Machine.
I hear that the Bremen Fire Brigade is to have an electric ambulance in the course of December.
Postal Vans.
Nuremberg purposes taking a leaf out of Munich's book, and will introduce motorvans for conveying the mails and parcels from the head post office and suburban offices to the railway station. A dozen vans will he put on by way of a beginning.
The German Manceuvres.
In a recent communication, I touched upon the trial use of self-propelled vehicles for transporting loads in connection with military operations in Germany, and it will probably interest your readers to learn how such vehicles nave answered. First, as regards the .so-called heavy column. In this _class, steam, British-designed machines were :riumphant. Only the two Fowler :ractors, the parts for which are manu_ actured in Leeds and assembled in Magdeburg, succeeded in getting their 'ull loads over the Wartha Pass; the Freibahn steam train and the Siemens Ind Schuckert " mixed " train had to 'educe loads before accomplishing he climb. The Fowler machines were )f the type that proved so efficient in he Boer War. As to the light column, ioth steam, represented by the Stolz iystem, already illustrated and de;cribed in " THE commERciAL Mocou," Ind petrol, mainly vehicles from the Daimler works at Untertiirkheim, ;hared the honours equally. The tra
• elling " repair shops " answered very yell, and in particular the idea of itting them with dynamos, driven by he motors, for generating electricight current to enable the engineers o effect repairs at night, was cornnendable ; the same must be said of he travelling " stores " consisting of ietrol-driven vehicles supplied by • arious inn kers. Motorbus Lines.
A Bavarian motor post line, linking Wiirzburg and Rimpar, was opened on the ist November. There is some talk of extending the Holstein LensahnEutin line as far as Cismar, in view of the popularity of the present arrangement. Rothenburg and Leutershausen are to be connected by a motorbus line under State management : so much has been settled. What still remains for settlement is the proportion of cests to he borne by the several parishes.
Synthetical Alcohol.
Touching upon the proposed German State monopoly of alcohol, referred to in a paragraph last week, an expert suggests in the " Berliner Tageblatt " that, with chemistry progressing at its present rate, within a few years alcohol will be prepared by a cheap, synthetical method, and distilleries can close down, just as indigo planting received a fatal blow from the chemical process of producing the dye. Alcohol is simply a modified hydrocarbon—in fact, the ethyl radical, C., Ile and the monatomic radical hydroxyl, 0 H, this latter radical replacing one atom of hydrogen in the hydrocarbon, and the chemist has two problems before him : first, to produce the C.2 It; ; and tInn to substitute the radical hydroxyl for an atom of hydrogen. All materials are at hand—in coal, water and air. Chemists have advanced so far as to be able to convert acetylene, generated from calcium carbide, which is electrically prepared by synthesis from coal and lime, into alcohol, although by a process far too costly for commercial purposes. ..1nyhow, the fact remains that in the laboratory alcohol has been synthetically prepared ; and, as quoted, this expert looks forward to rapid strides within the next few years. The question of commercial production is the real point,
An Electric Cab Combine.
With the co-operation of the Betgisch-Mahrische Bank and the Norddeutsche Automobil;Motoren AktienGesellschaft (Bremen), a company has been floated at DLissddorf with a provisional capital of £8,750 for the manufacture of taximeters and private carriages driven by electric power. The company will trade as the Thisseldorfer Elektromobil-Betriebs AktienGesellschaft.
An Electric Street Washer.
Recently, in Berlin, an electricallypropelled, street-cleansing machine was exhibited in operation by Hentschel and Co., for the edification of the muni_ cipal engineers. Amongst these was Magistratsbaurat Skalla, the director of Berlin's Street-creaning Depart'trent, which body, I understand, expressed its satisfaction with the results of the trial. It is probably the only vehicle of the kind ill existence, Battery and motors have been supplied by the Gottfried-Hagen ElektromobiiWerke, of Kalk. The former, which consists of 40 cells, is of the grid type to take a charge of 36 amperes, and is stowed away in a case under the front part of the vehicle. A couple of motors, each developing ah.p., drive the front wheels, and give a maximum speed of on kilometres, or between 6 and 7 miles, an hour. The controller has live forward and two reverse positions. One charge of the battery suffices for to-15 hours' work. Steering is effected by means of sprocket-and-chain transmission from the steeling spindle to a system of levers operating on the two driving wheels. Of me two brakes which are fitted, one is electric and the other is worked by hand. The machine does not collect street-refuse ; it simply washes the roads ; it carries 2,500 litres (some 460 gallons) of water for this purpose. Under normal working conditions, with not too frequent stoppages, the machine can wash a road-surface of 75,000 to ioo,000 square metres against 35,000 to 4.0,000 washed under similar conditions by a horsedrawn cleanser. The water is forced out under hydraulic pressure, and the rubber brush is driven from one of the rear wheels by a chain and sprockets. One man can easily manage the machine, which weighs 3,300 kilos. With a full load of water, the motors are called upon to propel some 5,80o kilos.
It is not unlikely that the Sheffield Corporation will acquire a similar machine; one of the city engineers has been interested in the matter. I once more take the occasion to say that Magistratsbaurat Skalla, unlike his predecessor, who was content to jog along in old ruts, is always open to consider mechanical contrivances for cleansing streets. If Berlin's progress in this province is slow, the Wain rests on the corporation, and not on the director of this department.