From Our Berlin Correspondent.
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Motor-post Linea for Tourists ; in Bavaria.
Tourists in Bavaria should bear in mind that, during the summer months, State motor lines intersect the most attractive mountainous and lake districts of the country. The vehides worked are light, elegant single-deckers, with a glass screen in front, and open at the sides and rear. Thirty-live vehicles of the type were delivered recently, so that the State's motor rolling-stock now consists of 161 vehidm
Berlin's Automobile Rolling-stock kfor the Fire Brigade.
Berlin's municipal budget contains, inter (Ilia, an item of 131,500 marks (C6,575) for self-propelled machines for the new fire-station near Schillerham. What the Corporation will pay for the several units for this station is duly set forth, as follow :—Steamworked pump, 32,750 marks (£1,6381; escape-wagon, 32,000 marks (£1,600); gas-engine 22,750 marks (£1,138); tender, 21,000 marks (L1,050). In addition to the foregoing amounts, there are the costs of fitting out the vehicles and the station which will be on thoroughly up-to:date lines. Further, the Corporation is spending 12,000 marks (£600) for a staff car, and 33,000 marks (L1,650) for half-a-dozen voiturettes for the two chief fireirspectors and the four "all-motor " stations Neel. 3, 4, 15 and 23 (Schillerhain). Thus, of Berlin's 21 fireextinguishing sets, four consist wholly of self-propelled vehicles. Two additional all-motor stations are included in the Corporation's programme, each ith four vehicles of the types acquired for the station near Schillerhem. With the exception of the voiturettes, which will have petrol engines. lierlin's fire-brigade vehicles are electric-driven.
German Companies' Dividends : Stoewer and Loewe.
The supervisory board of the Stoewer Aktien-Gesellschaft, Stettin. duly decided to propose, at the general meeting, a dividend of 10 per cent., after making deductions to the amount of 141.610 marks (91.955 in 1908) for depreciations and the reserve fund. In the issue of 17th February, there appeared a note to the effect that a dividend of 10 per cent. would probably be paid. Trade in Germany still leaves much to be desired, hilt some firms, as in the present ease, appear little affected by the prevailing depression. Another German house in a position to pay a splendid dividend is Ludwig Loewe and Co.. the famous tool-machine makers, whose profits amount to 2.1.53,714 marks, as against 2,167,237 in 1908. This profit yields a dividend of 16 per cent.. 780.710 marks being written off and 6.1.754 marks carried forward to the 1910 account. The Co.'s previous dividend was also 16 per cent. Agreement Amongst Makers on German Subsidized Wagons as to Conditions of Sale. Ten firms interested in the production of automobiles for military purposes have come to an understanding with regard to the terms on which such vehicles shall in future be sold.
"I he clauses of the convention fix a minimum price for motor wagon as well is for trailer; they specify the general characteristic's ot vehicles supplied at the minimum prices, and regulate the duration and nature of trial runs undertaken with the object of enabling possible customers to form a practical estimate of the efficiency and working costs of wagons of the approved military type. Apropos the revision of the subvention conditions, reported on the 3rd inst., the German War Office do not wish the maximum weight to exceed 9,000 kilos., nor have they suggested the lowering of the horse-power from 35 to 30 or fixed a time-limit for the use of gear-drives.
The gradient vehicles are expected to take remains at 1 in 7. The revision is as yet a proposal only.
The:German Agricultural Society andaMotor Propulsion.
On the occasion of the "Agricultural Week " in Berlin, Engineer Hessler lectured to the delegates on the application of motor power to agricultural operations. Beginning with motor tractors for road work, he showed under what special conditions they might advantageously replace horse traction —for instance, where heavy useful loads had to be transported over long average distances, or where, by (pick-unloading devices, the yeMelo, although travelling over short dietances, could be kept working for hours practically without intermission. Herr Hessler made no attempt to recommend theEelf-propelled vehicle for all purposes, but was careful to disclimate. Turning to motor ploughs, he stated that the ponderous steam locomobiles. used in many parts of Germany for tillage, were economically inferior to a comparatively light. and agile tractor which could be hitched on to a set of shares or any other agricultural machine. At the same time, Herr Ilsseler saw no ground for eulogising, from an economic standpoint, agricultural
tractors ol ibis type at present on the market. In order to attain something really practical, farmer and machine-constructor must co-operate in furnishing suitable answers to the three following questions:—
1. For what weight shall the motor plough he built? 2. With what speed shall the motor cover the field?
3. What horse-power must such a machine possess, that, in the interest of general utility, it can be used not only for ploughing, but also for hauling, drilling and mowing machines, and, as a stationary engine, for driving, threshing, etc.
The St. Petersburg Dealers' Boy cott of the Local Motor Show.
Fourteen dealers, representing more than a score of foreign motor firms (amongst them the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Co., represented by de Passano), have bound themselves, each under a conventional penalty of 1,000 roubles, to boycott the motor show which is to take place towards the end of May under the auspices of the St. Petersburg Motor Club. Their reasons for this step are set forth in a circular sent round to the various motor works. Leaving out the heavy expense connected with participation, the dealers declare the projected exhibition to be prejudicial to their interests and, therefore, to those of the makers, on the following grounds:— (a) Possible buyers will defer purchasing until the close of the show, in the hope of securing bargains. In the meantime, i.e., from the announcement re the show until it terminates, dealers do little or no business.
(b) To be of any use at all, the show must be held long before the motoring season begins—say in the last quarter of the year, and not at the beginning of June.
(c) In any case, sales at the show would be too few to compensate the dealers for loss : witness the St. Petersburg show in 1907, when only 20 per cent, of the vehicles exhibited were sold.
Thus say the dealers. On the other hand, their opponents say that the sole object of the circular is the selfish one of keeping competitors out of the Russian market. Again, what happened in 1907 cannot possibly be advanced as a criterion for eventualities now, since, during the last 2:1, years, the self-propelled vehicle has gained enormously in popularity, especially in Government and military circles. And how, one asks, could industrial trials (part of the Russian club's programme) he held over country roads in the heart of a Russian winter ?Friends of the exhibition advise firms not to suffer themselves to be "scared off" by the St. Petersburg. ring—beati prAsid.,afrsi—but to push their Russian business to the utmost, boycott or no boycott.