From Our Berlin Correspondent.
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The managers of the motorpost line Kochel-Walchensee Mittenwald have found it necessary to increase their rolling stock. Marienfelde vehicles, open and closed, work this route, each driven by a four-cy-linder engine of 35h.p., and built to carry 21 passengers. During Whitsuntide, the strain on the Marienfelders was particularly severe ; they were overloaded on nearly every journey, and, it appears, there was no ,getting the " overweight " to leave.
Leipzie Motorcab Owners and the Maximum Speed.
Leipzic motorcab owners have petitioned the authorities for an increase of the maximum speed, the present limit of 64 miles an hour tending to paralyse the traffic. On the other hand, too, the drivers are up in arms against the ,excessive penalties for petty infringements of the traffic regulations, and threaten to throw up their jobs unless some change be made ; so that, what with one difficulty and another, the owners are not happy. In their petition, the owners also mention the heavy fines and the superficial methods of determining culpability.
Again No Dividend for the " Bedag " . Shareholders.
A twelvemonth ago, the shareholders of the Berlin Elektromobil-DroschkenAktien-Gesellschaft, Berlin's big electric cab company, were told that 1907 would produce a dividend if receipts remained at the level reached during May and April of that year, but, this condition not having been fulfilled, shareholders go once more empty away. Directors report that the business and working costs doubled in each case. To give exact figures, the former increased from 44,620 to 410,536, the latter from A.:',26,084 to .452,29e. No less a sum than 4'27,16o was written off, against .48,125 in 1906; on the rolling stock alone, which soon gets used up, the depreciation account is debited with 4'21,267, the item under this head for 19(36 standing at only .4'3,536, or, Toughly, about one-sixth. The collec:five rolling stock is booked at .485,070, which, compared with 1906, shows a drop of over £7,000; moreover, the company's uncovered debts have swollen from 4.3,170 to 4'12,654, and, whereas, at the time of the last report, there was a bank credit of over 415,000, the present credit balance is nil. As if the " nil " were not sufficiently dis
heartening, the company owes the bank 43,300. Altogether, creditors have a claim on 433,645, there being a debit off-set of 4540.
It is sought to soothe shareholders with the following words : " In the current working year, we are for the first time in a position to make full use of our rolling stock, and since, too, receipts have hitherto stood in a favourable ratio to our expenses, it is to be hoped that, in making public the results of 19o8, we shall be able to lay before our shareholders a considerably more favourable balance-sheet." flow, in face of these heavy liabilities, with nothing at the bank except a heavy item on the wrong side of the pass book, the shareholders will be presented with anything satisfactory in the way of balance-sheets, I am at a loss to conjecture. The corn
pany's affairs seem to be settling down deeper and deeper in that financial swamp which maketh for bankruptcy.
An Adler Ambulance Wagon.
I am now in a position to supply illustrations of the interesting ambulance wagon shown by the Adler Company at Frankfort, in conjunction with the congress for rescue work that was held there a few weeks ago. As regards the chassis, I have no need to say more than that it represents the Frankfort shop's latest word on petrol engines. The body-work incorporates, in some respects, wholly new ideas which have been suggested by practical experience in ambulance operations. Its exterior lines are those generally adopted for limousinebodies, and, saving the frosted-glass windows, the wagon, with its dark blue, lacquered panels, agreeable mouldings, fine red lines, and leather-upholstered front, is not suggestive of hospital service.
The interior is fitted up for carrying two stretchers, although, as a rule, one is regarded as an emergency stretcher, and, when not in use, is supposed to be carried on the railed-off roof. One of the illustrations shows the middle sidepanel let down to admit a stretcher, which, possessing rubber-tired wheels with the axles set for lateral movement, can be easily and smoothly pushed into the interior. The space not occupied by the emergency stretcher affords accommodation for attendants, for whom seats are provided. Cushions to these seats form ambulance cases, and can be removed to make way for the second stretcher. Right and left of the front panel there is a receptacle for a water-bottle, glasses, medicaments and so forth. A speaking-tube connects,up the chauffeur with the inside, which is lighted by electricity and provided with heating and ventilating contrivances. "The Self-propelled Vehicle in the Service of the Fire Brigade."
Berlin's up-to-date "captain," Herr Reichcl, recently delivered an address under the above title at the eighth Congress of German Fire Brigades, held at Essen. In the course of an instructive review of the progress of automobile technics from his standpoint, he ex pressed the wish that the general public might eventually come to regard the automobile no conger as a work of Satan, but appreciate more its practical efficiency. He stated that, on the basis of official statistics, 27 fire brigades in Germany used self-propelled vehicles : by the end of 19°8 the number of brigades with automobiles would have in creased to 71. [We regret lack of space to publish details this week.— Eo.] Berlin's All-motor Fire Station.
called at Berlin's all-motor fire station to-day, the 2nd July, to ascer tain how matters were progressing, and learnt that three of the four vehicles on order had been delivered on the preced ing day, namely, tender, gas-engine and steam-engine. The mechanical escape to be supplied by Braun and Com pany, of Nuremberg, and equipped with electromotors from the Austrian Daimler Company's works, had not arrived. Tender, gas-engine and steam-engine have been delivered in the "rough," and, I understand, will not be ready for official inauguration before the end of September. Meanwhile, the gasengine has been given a trial spin, and the men are very pleased with it. Prob able it is that Captain Reichel will work the station with this gas-engine pend ing the finishing off of the other vehicles, as there is not much to be done to it; he would prefer to start operations with the whole set. Further particulars respecting the vehicles delivered I give below.
The chassis to the gas-engine comes from the Austrian Daimler Company's shop, at Vienna; the Berlin-Hagen Ac cumulator Company has supplied the battery, which, in working order,
weighs 15 cwt. 3 qrs., and has .78 cells
with a capacity of 146 ampere-hours on a 5-hour discharge. Two main-current Lohner-Porsche motors (the Austrian Daimler Company makes and sells this type) drive the automobile at a top speed of 23 miles an hour : there are five forward speeds, three backward speeds, and four positions for braking. Four cwt., 3 qrs., 25 lb. is given as the col lective weight of the motors. The foregoing notes respecting battery end so on hold good for each vehicle.
Messrs. Busch and Company, of Bautzen, have built chassis and body of tender and steam-engine. All four wheels of each vehicle are shod with Continental solid tires, with a section of 120mm., and both rear wheels and one of the front pair carry anti-skids of -ivets vulcanised in. All four vehicles have electric lamps. Costs : gas-engine,
1:1243; tender, .4'1,203; steam-pump, 7s:17,3,753; mechanical escape, ;1_,-1,753.
Including weight of firemen, each of the fully-equipped vehicles turns the scale at close upon 41 tons.
The Berlin Corporation's Selfpropelled Abattoir wagon.
Some few weeks ago I stated that the Berlin Corporation—which, by the way, has just started a tramcar system of its own—intended to acquire a self-propelled vehicle for the purpose of expediting the removal from the streets of horses which meet with accidents, and have to be carried off to the abattoir. Well, since the 1st June this vehicle has been in use, and it is garaged at the premises of the Municipal Meat-destroying Depot, on the north-eastern boundary of the city. I inspected the vehicle at the garage in question, and, from w hat I saw and heard there, the acquisition constitutes a melancholy instance of how not to do it. Let me say at once that the chassis, which came from the N.A.G.'s shop, works well, and has given every satisfaction : it is the body that leaves much to be desired, this being much too flimsy and cramped for the objects aimed at. Messrs. KiihIstein, the coachbuilders, stand at the top of their trade when it comes to fine carriage. work, but they have apparently had little or no experience in turning out the rough class of vehicle used in connection with slaughter-houses, else they would have provided a broader entrance at the back, used longer screws for the lateral hind pieces, and covered the segmental wheel-protectors inside the body—which, naturally, hangs low—with sheet metal that could not be pounded out of shape like a sardine tin under the hoofs of a struggling horse.
I hardly expected to see a handwinch in an up-to-date vehicle of the kind, having supposed that power from the engine would be applied for haul
log the carcase or wounded animal into the interior; but I certainly was a bit surprised to discover that the winch possesses no locking device for preventing the load from slipping back again— as, under the present circumstances, it often does—into its former position. The back door takes the form of a flap, hinged from the flooring, and, when let down, forms an inclined plane with the ground. This flap has rails on its inside surface, for the reception of a false body-bottom, running on wheels, and upon which the animal is levered for transport into the wagon. The lower half of the body is closed and lined with metal ; interspersed, longitudinal boards complete the upper half. Doubtless, the next abattoir wagon ordered by the Corporation will be a little more practical in design.
Self-propelled Vehicles at the Stuttgart Agricultural Show.
John Fowler, of Leeds,. whose reputation for fine productions stands as high in Germany as in England, sends six steam-ploughing engines, a road tractor, and a couple of steam rollers to Stuttgart, and with this array of exhibits the famous Leeds company makes an imposing show. The German house of Kemna appears with two powerful plough-locomotives. Ventzki, too, has entered a steam plough-lbcomotive. From the Deutz works comes an interesting plough-locomotive with a 4oh.p., internal-combustion engine, and fitted with a proughshare-frame fore and aft. It can run backwards and forwards without turning,, and can be used for road-traction and threshing operations. The Deutz engine is shown at work on a piece of ground adjoining the exhibition buirdings.