The Industry in Central Europe.
Page 15
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Hungarian P.O. to Have 500 Motors, English Daimler Bus Demonstrating on the Continent. The Latest Marienfelde W.O. Type.
Motorbuls Developments in Germany.
Leipzig is to be served by motorbuses more extensively, and a company has been formed with a capital of X100,000. There is to be a uniform fare of lid. upon all routes.
Mechanical Sweepers for Berlin.
The Berlin Street-cleaning Department contemplates supplanting by degrees all the horse-drawn sweepers by electrically-propelled types. As our readers are aware, the Department has long had a number of accumulator driven street-washers in use, and is so pleased with results obtained from them that the fleet will be materially strengthened. Berlins budget for 1913 will include estimates for two self-propelled road-sweepers.
Motorizing the Hungarian P.O.
Within the next six years the Hungarian Post Office will have acquired 500 automobiles of various types, as follow : 250 letter-collecting voiturettes of 8 h.p., 100 parcelvans of 16 h.p., 75 parcel-cum-passenger vehicles of 30 h.p., and 75 parcel-vans of 30 h.p. The Hungarian Mini3ter of Commerce invites tenders for this fleet, but, unfortunately, will accept them from home makers only. Might it not be worth some British maker's while to establish a producing branch in Hungary ? The Hungarian makers entitled to tender for these vehicles number two or three, and were it not for -State help they would be simply snuffed out by the agents of foreign houses, who, we believe, do a good business. As to the abovementioned voiturettes, it is interesting to note that they will supplant motorcycles with sidecars. German-Daimler W.O. Lorry.
The new Daimler-Marienfelde military lorry, which has been constructed on the modified lines
already. made public, contains a four-cylinder engine giving 36 h.p., or an efficiency sufficient to drive lorry and trailer at. a top speed of 10 miles an hour. We may remind our readers that the Prussian War Office had originally intended to exclude the gear-drive adopted by the Daimler Gesellschaft from newsubsidized lorries, as uniform wheels were to be prescribed for military trains and, besides, all the remaining makes are equipped with a chain drive. Now, although this uniformity might perhaps have better suited the War Office, it would certainly have inflicted a wrong upon the Daimler people, whose peculiar drive leaves practically nothing to be desired in point of efficiency ; moreover, the Daimler Gesellschaft ranks amongst pioneers in the production of heavy chassis.
Borges of Venezuela.
News comes from Venezuela that the Ministry for Public Works has granted Senor Noberto Borges a.
30-year concession to establish and work motor lines from Valencia to Barinas, with a branch from Acarigua to Barquisimato. Senor Borges is entitled to import dutyfree any material he may require for the execution of this traffic scheme, provided the materials are unobtainable in Venezuela. This gentleman's acquaintance would seem to be worth cultivating.
English Daimler in Munich.
Various projects have been ventilated from time to time for improving Munich's means of internal communication, but with no practical result as yet, The latest is to work English Daimler omnibuses over Metropolitan and suburban lines, and the Coventry model, originally intended for Vienna, has been demonstrating in the Bavarian capital, where, according to reports, it has created quite a sensation. Writes "The Munich News" on the phenomenon: "When one reflects that in London alone 5000 vehicles of the kind are at work, their reliability is sufficiently proved. Well, the cities of Vienna and Budapest have made arrangements with the London Omnibus Co. to satisfy, with this means of traffic, all suburban traffic requirements as far as possible. In contemplating this vehicle one involuntarily asks why it should be intended only for Vienna and Budapest, and whether, with our colossal precincts, it might not. also meet many a wish here in Munich." The official organ of the German Imperial Motor Club appears rather alarmed at the Coventry invasion ; at any rate, it directs the serious attention of home makers to the possibilities of the Munich market for German omnibuses.