From Our Berlin Correspondent.
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I learn that the Gaggenau firm has sold to the Metz garrison a wagon for the transport of meat. The automobile is used daily for the carrying of fresh meat to the regimental butchers.
Fire at the Bergmann Works.
On the 15th instant a destructive fire broke out at the works of the Bergmann Electric Company, Berlin. Luckily, the fire occurred after working hours, so that the damage was limited to the material contained in the buildings. This company makes the new Edison battery, and, at the Berlin Motor Show of 1907, exhibited an " industrial " chassis carrying a number of cells. That chassis was illustrated in "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR " of the 26th of December last.
The "Motorisation " of Berlin Fire engines.
The all-motor station in the SchOnlankstrasse has already proved so superior to the old type that Commander Reichel intends to proceed, without delay, in the " motorisation "of the engines attached to the stations in the Oldenbergerstrasse and the Memelstrasse, in the northern and eastern districts respectively. Besides this, he has proposed to the Corporation the establishment of three new stations, one in the north, another in the north-east, and the third in the north-west of the city.
Liability for Injuries caused through Constructional Defects.
The German Imperial Supreme Court has just delivered a judgment denying liability for injuries caused through a constructional defect in an automobile. I write " constructional defect," yet it was merely a question of a bolt binding the levers of the steering contrivance of an industrial vehicle, the bolt having been fitted head downwards instead of vice versa. This bolt remained in position for some years, but one day it fell out, with the result that the vehicle ran on to the pavement and, unfortunately, killed a child, whose father was plaintiff in the action. In giving judgment, the Court observed that, as the police authorities had licensed the automobile for public traffic, after a thorough investigation of its constructional parts,
there could be no question of liability on the part of owner or driver for the failure of the steering through the bolt dropping out. That is the present state of the law. However, the new Motor Liability Bill, now being considered by a special committee of the Imperial Diet, would make the owner liable for accidents caused " through defective condition of the vehicle, or failure of its contrivances." Clause 6 provides for a maximum annuity of ."450 in the case of personal injuries or fatalities, and a maximum sum of ..,5oo where only damages to property are involved. I cite this case as an instance of what is brewing for the German automobile industry. Another feature of the Bill is that the onus probandi is thrown upon the motorist, who, being assumed to be guilty, must exculpate himself.
Cologne's Go-ahead Corporation: a Marienfelde Tipping Wagon.
In acquiring heavy automobiles for hygienic purposes the Cologne Corporation is showing the way to the remaining German cities. So far as I am aware, Berlin, for instance, possesses no self-propelled vehicle for the removal of refuse and the like. In November last I forwarded an illustration of a tipping cart supplied to the Cologne Municipality by a Stettin firm, but the Daimler-Marienfelde machine presents several points of difference. The chassis is the 1908 model, and is fitted with a four-cylinder engine developing 36h.p. The Stettin wagon carries five tons, whereas the Marienfelde wagon accommodates a load of six tons. Again, by means of a roof extending from the back of the chauffeur's seat to the dashboard and fitted with side-curtains, which can be rolled up and strapped close to the roof, the men in attendance obtain no little protection from the weather. Further, the body of the Daimler is without the roof-flap hinged at the tail-end and lifting up backwards, but possesses a series of lateral iron flaps sloping down to the sidepanels and hinged a short distance from the angle of the roof. From a hygienic point of view such an arrangement cannot be too warmly recommended, as, when the men are loading up, they can keep closed all the flaps except the one over that section of the body receiving the refuse at the particular moment. Lastly, the tipping stays are attached, not at the forward end of the body, but to a cross-member which is fixed at about a third of bodylength from that end.
Pittler Rotary Pumps for Berlin Fire-engines.
Commander Reichel, of the Berlin Fire-Brigade, leaves nothing undone to improve the appliances and vehicles at the various stations. To his initiative, as readers of "THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR " may recollect, Berlin owes its first all-motor fire-station, upon which the remaining stations will be gradu
ally re-modelled. Berlin's fire-pumps belong to the reciprocating type, but Commander Reichel thinks that, in some cams, they might advantageously give place to rotary pumps; and, with this end in view he has conducted, at the Schonebeckstrasse station, trials with a Pittler pump, his primary object being to test its suctional power and throw. Commander Reichel's idea is to equip Berlin's reserve engines with this class of pump, which he intends to fit up by degrees for electric as well as steam propulsion. Such engines would answer mainly calls from outside the metropolitan and suburban area, and hence the dual system of propulsion, whereby steam could be brought into play if the electric current were used up on a long run. The Pittler occupies little room, and is, on that account. suitable for being built into a fire-engine. At the Schonebeckstrasse it was coupled up direct with an electromotor and in the first place, required to suck dry a reservoir lying 26 feet below it. Anyone who had witnessed a Pinter at work on the contents of a test trough could have little doubt about the result. Commander Reichel expressed his perfect satisfaction.
Subsequently, experiments were made with a fth-inch nozzle and a couple of half-inch nozzles, and the pump threw jets to a height of 115 feet. At 700r.p.m., the Pittler can deliver 40 cubic metres-8,goo gallons—of water in an hour. I hear that the particular pump tried at Berlin will shortly go to Trieste to be fitted into a fire-float.