From Our Berlin Correspondent.
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War Office Subsidies.
As foreshadowed by a member of the inside staff, the German military autho. rifles have resolved to grant makers of 3oh.p. freight automobiles—for the time being, Bussing, the Marienfeidc branch of the Daimler Company, and the N.A.G.—an " on-account "subvention of .4.200 per wagon, payable four weeks after delivery, and a yearly con tribution towards the year's costs of working, payable at the end of the year. In return for this subvention, makers must keep the vehicles fit for military service and, in case of war, place them at the disposal of the army administration against a fixed compen. sation. Both the instalment on account, and the contribution towards the working expenses, will be paid by the particular army administration commandeering the vehicle in the event of war. The Prussian. War Office has already issued the necessary orders, and the Bavarian will shortly follow suit. A Bill is to go before the Diet in this sense. The main purpose of the subvention is to secure for military service a_ considerable number of freight automobiles of as uniform a type as possible. At the same time, it is proposed to facilitate the formation of working companies in districts where the means of traffic are wanting; in this way, a working company places at the disposal of the War Office a number of trailers of private concerns, and undertakes the transport of loads with the subsidised automobiles.
Berlin General Omnibus Company.
Herr Isendahl, a Berlin motor engineer, points out in his comments on the extraordinay bill run up by the Berlin General Omnibus Company for repairs to the motorbuses, that the waits at the termini are far too short to give the chauffeur time to go round his engines and oil up. Besides, if more time were given, he rightly thinks the chauffeur ought to be allowed to rest from the arduous strain of piloting a colossal motorbus through Berlin's traffic; fitters should be told off for the rough overhauling at the termini. That, however, has to do with a defective organisation. to which I referred in my first note. But Herr Isendahl hits out at the chauffeurs themselves as well, remarking that drivers can be " daily seen and heard starting in the third, or even in the fourth, speed." " Brutal and clumsy" handling, he says.
Turning again to the question of organisation, the Berlin engineer speaks of chassis which had " apparently not been overhauled for months," So thick lay dirt upon them. In 5907, the company owned 55 omnibuses. Herr Isendahl states that the Grosse Berliner Motorornnibus-g-esellschaft can show far better results. Well, to my personal knowledge, the " Grosse's " engineers anticipated as much. Anyhow, the general appearance of the "
Grosses " omnibuses is better.
At the general meeting of the company, held in the 'Change Hall of the
Senior Merchants, Chairman Kriiger, facing an angry crowd of shareholders, embittered by a series of administrative blunders and shortcomings culminating in a debit balance exceeding half a million marks, donned the white sheet of penitence he then smote his breast with a mea cuipa! men maxima culpa:! and told the meeting that the self-propelled omnibuses had been neglected. Herr Vorreiter, one of the shareholders, was certainly right in saying that, with their bill of 50 per cent, of the purchase price for repairs, the directors had " covered themselves with ridicule." Chairman .Krtiger's humiliating admission that things had been done which ought not to have been done, and things left undone which ought not. to have been left undone by any board of gentlemen at the head of a commercial undertaking, will be noted with satisfaction by the Marienfelde engineers, who naturally felt that the defective handling of the buses was doing the works and motorbus traffic generally a grave injustice. Upon the directorial blunders affecting the general working of the company's vehicles, I have no need to expatiate ; it is sufficient for my purpose that the Director admits the mishandling of the motorbuses. What surprises me, when I consider the directorial policy as a whole, is that the shareholders should put up with a board who have proved their incompetence to conduct the affairs of a company supposed to be working_ for profit and not philanthropy.
Four-wheel-driven "Marienfelder."
The Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft has recently turned out from its Marienfelde works a vehicle which has been designed for use on the exceptionally heavy and uneven roads which are met with in Germany's South-West-African Colony, whither the vehicle is now on its way after protracted trials at home. So far as the home trials went—and
they were pretty severe—the vehicle may be pronounced successful. All the four wheels are driven, by a 45h.p. engine, through a four-speed-and-reverse gearbox, from which a third-motion shaft transmits the drive to each of the differential gears, and thence to each of the road wheels, through bevel gearing, as is illustrated. on page 262 of our issue
of the igth November last. In that issue, we gave an abridgment of the specification of the British Patent.
The differential-gear casings are bolted to the beds of the axles, and the bevel gears are protected by cases which enclose the _steering pivots of the axles. The wheels are of the disc pattern, and are made of steel plates. The vehicle is steered by all four 'wheels, which are interconnected, and the maximum lock of any one wheel is 23 degrees. The two axles are held at a fixed distance apart by means of a perch frame, and this is anchored to a plate-steel easing, in which the gearbox is suspended from three points. All the wheels are alike, and they are shod with pneumatic tires of 93omm. by 125rnm. On account of the tropical climate in which this vehicle is to be operated, two radiators are fitted (one of which is of horse-shoe shape and surrounds the dashboard), and about 31 gallons of water are kept in constant circulation through these and the two tanks which are provided.
Special attention has been paid to the protection of all the mechanism from the very fine sand which abounds in the district in which the vehicle is to be worked, and another feature of the design is the small number of dissimilar parts which are incorporated in its construction.
The weight of this vehicle, including spare parts, tools, water, and fuel, is 31 tons, and there is seating accommo dation for six persons. The car has been built to the order of the German Colonial Office.