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Chronological List of District Heating
Systems in the United States |
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| Hartford Courant, June 19, 1880, Page 2. |
Hartford has had two district heating systems with the same name. The first Hartford Steam Company began service in 1880 and shut down in 1892, and the second started in 1961 and is still operating.
The first Hartford Steam Company was incorporated by the Connecticut legislature in 1879 and began supplying steam on October 8, 1880. Unlike other early steam companies, the Hartford system was not built by the Holly Steam Combination Company, probably because the two parties could not reach an agreement on the patent fights. The system was instead built by the A. Harvey Company, that had earlier built part of the steam system in Detroit. The Holly company threatened the Hartford firm with patent infringement, but never followed through with any legal action.
Although initially successful, the company soon lost money and the trustees explored options to sell or lease the property. The Hartford Light and Power Company installed electric generators at the steam company's plant to support their electric business and acquired the majority of stock in the steam firm. The Light and Power Company bought by the steam company in 1892 and shut down the steam system.
References
1879 "Steam
Heating and the Gas Company," Hartford Courant, February 11,
1879, Page 2.
1879 An Act Incorporating the Hartford Steam Company, March 15, 1879
1880 "The
Steam Heating Company," Hartford Courant, May 1, 1880, Page
1.
The works of the Hartford steam company are to be located on South Ann
street.
1880 "Steam
Heating," Hartford Courant, May 3, 1880, Page 2.
The Hartford Steam Heating Company have adopted the Holly system of steam
heating substantially as the same is now in operation in Detroit,
Michigan. The Hot Water and Thrall [Prall?] system, which has been
thoroughly investigated by the Hartford Co., is to be entirely neglected.
1880 "Steam
Heating," Hartford Courant, July 20, 1880, Page 2. | Notices
from the Holly Steam Combination Company and the Harvey Company |
A proposed interference with the Hartford Company
1880 "Steam
Heating," Hartford Courant, August 2, 1880, Page 2.
Notices from the Holly Steam Combination Company, Detroit Steam Supply
Company and the Harvey Company
1880 Hartford
Courant, October 9, 1880, Page 3.
Steam was turned into a portion of the piping of the Hartford Steam
company last night.
1884 Meriden
Daily Republican, February 25, 1884, Page 1.
The Hartford Steam Heating company want to substitute water gas for steam
in their street pipes and have asked the Connecticut legislature for
authority to make the charge. They expect to furnish the gas at fifty
cents for 1,000.
1884 "No
Money In Supplying Heat from a Common Center," American Gas
Light Journal 40:301 (June 16, 1884)
New Haven Heat Supply Company shut off steam from its pipes on the fifth
of last May. A large stockholder in the concern said that the loss to the
company during the past season had been $5,700, and stated the business
had always been operated without profit. He further said that the
proprietors were willing to sell the rights, plant, etc., for the sum of
$25,000--the original cost of same having been $75,000. The business of
supplying steam heat from a central station was proclaimed, at the outset
of the scheme, to be one of the grandest schemes of the age. It is rather
pitiful now, from the numerous wrecks announced, to contrast these glowing
promises with the actual results accomplished. Among the defunct steam
heating corporations may be mentioned those of Troy, N. Y.; Detroit,
Mich.; Milwaukee, Wis.; Burlington, Iowa; Hartford, Conn.; Lynn, Mass.,
and one in New York city. Per contra to this it should be said
that the surviving company at present operating in this city, claims to
have been perfectly successful— even going so far as to say that interest
on the plant is easily earned. Perhaps.
1884 "Hartford
Steam Company," Hartford Courant, July 30, 1884, Page 1.
Seeking to sell or lease its property
1884 "Hartford's
Steam Heating Company," The Morning-Journal Courier, August
6, 1884, Page 2.
Has been leased to certain stockholders.
1886 "Electric
Lighting," The Meriden Daily Republican, December 15, 1886,
Page 4.
Hartford Light and Power Company has its plant established at the Hartford
Steam Company's works on Pearl street.
1886 The
Memorial History of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884,
Volume 1
Page 462: In 1879 the Hartford Steam Company was chartered to make
at a central station, and furnish through pipes, steam for heating and for
power. In the winter of 1881 the system was put in operation. After a time
it was found to be a losing business on account of waste and leakage; and
the furnishing of power, which had involved carrying steam at a high
pressure, was discontinued. It is still retained for heating, and about a
hundred and twenty-five customers are supplied, many of whom represent
blocks or large public buildings. Some few attempts were made to use this
steam in cooking. The Gas Company has done a considerable business of this
kind, and has placed about eight hundred stoves for cooking or heating.
1887 "Suit Against the Steam Company," Hartford Courant, April 14, 1887, Page 2.
1887 "A
Proposition to Lease," Hartford Courant, July 8, 1887, Page
2.
Only proposition to lease the works came from the Hartford Light and Power
Company.
1887 "Steam
Heating," The Morning Journal-Courier, July 25, 1887, Page
4.
The company decided to run the plant another year, either on its own
account or under a lease.
1887 "Co-Operative
Heating," Hartford Courant, November 14, 1887, Page 5.
Customers band together and install a boiler.
1887 "Repairing
the Steam Pipes," Hartford Courant, December 7, 1887, Page
8.
Some pipes to be covered with asbestos.
1889 "The
Water Gas Question," Hartford Courant, May 10, 1889, Page 1.
Two Reports on the Petition of the Light and Power Company
1892 "Gone
Out of Existence," Hartford Courant, June 15, 1892, Page 1.
Hartford Steam Company sold to the Light and Power Company
1892 The
Electrical World 20(8):126 (August 10, 1892)
The Hartford Light and Power Company, of Hartford, Conn., which secured
the property of the Hartford Steam Company in June. has laid the
foundation for its new plant, and the work is progressing rapidly. Two
Corliss compound condensing engines with a combined horse power of 3,050
under a steam pressure of 125 pounds will furnish the power. The main
shaft will be 156 feet in length, each dynamo being connected with the
shaft by means of a clutch pulley. The cost of improvements will be about
$50,000.
1961 "Central Station Heating and Cooling in Hartford" by William T. Jebb, District Heating 47(2):69 (October 1961)
1969 The Hartford
Electric Light Company, by Glenn Weaver
Page 10: Hartford’s second utility company was a relative newcomer,
the Hartford
Steam Heating Company, which had been chartered on March 25, 1879, to
furnish steam through underground pipes for heating and power. The idea
had first been propounded by Jeremiah M. Allen, President of The Hartford
Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, and the country’s leading
authority on steam technology. The pipes were laid through the principal
business streets during the summer of 1880, and the system was put into
operation that fall. But the Steam Company was soon beset with many
problems. Leakage of steam accounted for both bad service and costly
operation, and by the spring of 1881 there was reason to believe that the
$500,000 business venture had been a failure. The Steam Company,
nevertheless, felt that its steam plant on Pearl Street could be utilized
in the generation of electricity, and in the spring of 1881, it, too,
petitioned the Legislature for a charter amendment to permit the sale of
electricity as a side line to the production of steam.
But there were those in Hartford who felt that the best interests of the
City would be served by a specially-created electric company which would
operate independently of both Gas Company and the Steam Heating Company.
Page 14: American Electric erected a small building on the Steam
Company’s Pearl Street property and installed therein an engine and dynamo
which were to be operated by steam to be provided by the Steam Company.
Page 19: The Hartford Electric Light Company took over the small
building—the “shack,” as it was called at the time—which had been built on
the Steam Company’s ground adjacent to the steam plant, and in late May,
1882, The Hartford Electric Light Company and the Steam Company entered
into an agree ment whereby the Light Company was to pay $450 per year for
the rental of space occupied by the Light Company’s building, and to have
the use of Numbers 8, 9, and 10 boilers in the north row of boilers for an
annual rental of $1,050.00 or $1,500.00 if boiler Number 7 should be
needed, and $350 for such additional boilers as might be required by the
Electric Company. The lease was to terminate on July 31, 1885.
Page 45: Thus, it was obvious that there was little enthusiasm for
the new enterprise outside the circle of those whom it was intended to
benefit-the Hartford Light and Power Company’s promoters, who hoped to
derive a profit from their investment, and the stockholders of the
Hartford Steam Heating Company, who saw in the new organization a possible
salvation for their own rapidly-sagging operation.
Hardly had the Hartford Light and Power Company been organized, when it
bought a controlling interest in the Steam Company. The transaction was
for $60,000 worth of the Steam Company’s stock and $40,000 in notes. There
was also an exchange of directors and officers, and from that point on,
the boards of directors of both companies were essentially the same.
Within the year, the Hartford Light and Power Company increased its
capital to $25,000, but this was a capitalization totally insufficient to
the purpose of salvaging a dying corporation whose services were not
really needed by the community, and of getting started a public utility
whose usefulness had been seriously questioned before it had even been
organized.
Page 46-47: Although it is always difficult to assess with any
accuracy the reasons for an institution’s success or failure, it might be
noted that the Hartford Light and Power Company’s prospects of success
were limited from the beginning with its too close alliance with an
insolvent utility company. The Hartford Steam Heating Company. It was
common knowledge that when David Henney formed his company. The Hartford
Steam Heating Company intended to operate for just one more year and then
quietly and quickly liquidate its few assets. Henney’s arrangement merely
prolonged the Steam Company’s life without adding in any appreciable way
to its usefulness as a public utility. Henney’s first proposal was
to contract for a certain amount of steam for a number of years and to pay
rent from the Hartford Light and Power Company’s earnings toward the
reduction of the Steam Company’s indebtedness. The Steam Company’s
officers were receptive to the suggestion, but there were difficulties,
largely, it would seem, in the fact that the Steam Company’s in debtedness
was scattered in small holdings whose possessors could not be induced to
cooperate.
With the failure to secure any satisfactory arrangement on a share-the-
profits plan, Henney made an offer of outright lease, which, as might have
been expected, was immediately accepted by the Steam Company
officers. Hartford Light and Power took over the management of the
entire Steam Company plant, and late in July, 1887, began to bill The
Hartford Electric Light Company for the steam used in driving the Light
Company’s dynamos. The Hartford Electric Light Company found itself
contributing to the income of its rival.
Page 53-54: Had the Light and Power Company people acted prudently,
the incandescent company might have established itself permanently as a
public utility in Hartford. Such, however, was not the case, for David
Henney immediately embarked on a course which tied his company even more
dangerously to the Steam Company and sent the Light and Power Company in a
direction which could only end in disaster.
Henney could not think of any course of action independent of the Steam
Company, even though that utility was operating at a loss. Nor could he
dissociate himself from any proposition which had the slightest hope of
revitalizing the Steam Company. Burdett Loomis, one of the original
directors of The Hartford Electric Light Company The Hartford Electric
Light Company, had quietly withdrawn from the Board of Directors in 1886
for reasons which were not then clear to the Company. Actually, Loomis had
been conducting chemical experiments at his summer cottage on Martha’s
Vineyard, and in the summer of 1886, he had developed a water gas process
which was essentially the decomposition of steam by passing it through an
incandescent carbon (coke) to which a small amount of oil had been added
so that an odor might be imparted. Although his “discovery” was not
original—it had been already known and applied in several places
throughout the world—Loomis was able to convince Henney that the Steam
Company and the incandescent light company could produce illuminating gas
more economically than the Hartford City Gas Light Company, and that the
steam pipes could be used to distribute water gas.
But water gas was highly toxic—being merely a mixture of hydrogen and
carbon monoxide—and the Hartford City Gas Light Company, which then had
some 1,500 stoves being served by its facilities, pointed out that if the
Steam Company’s pipes could not even carry steam, they most certainly
could not carry gas, and certainly should not be permitted to carry such a
highly noxious substance.®® Fortunately for the health and safety of the
Hartford citizenry, the Connecticut Legislature refused to amend the
Hartford Light and Power Company’s charter so as to permit the production
and distribution of water gas.
But despite the wise decision of the Connecticut legislators and the
generally unfavorable public opinion regarding the close alliance between
the Hartford Light and Power Company and the Hartford Steam Heating
Company, Henney continued to yoke the two utilities. In June, 1892, the
Steam Company sold out to the Hartford Light and Power Company, and the
latter company assumed the Steam Company’s many debts.
1982 Hartford
: an illustrated history of Connecticut's capital, by Glenn
Weaver
Page 103: Hartford’s second utility company was a newcomer. The
Hartford Steam Heating Company had been chartered on March 25, 1879, to
furnish steam through underground pipes for heating and power. Pipes were
laid through the principal business streets during the summer of 1880, and
the system was put into operation that fall. Leakage of steam accounted
for both bad service and costly operation, and by the spring of 1881 there
was reason to believe that the $500,000 business venture had been a
failure. The steam company nevertheless felt that its Pearl Street plant
could be utilized in the generation of electricity, and in the spring of
1881 it, too, petitioned for a charter amendment to permit the sale of
electricity as a sideline.
There were those in Hartford who felt that the best interests of the city
would be served by an electric company operating independently of both the
City Gas Light Company and the Steam Heating Company.
In late May, 1882, an agreement was made whereby the Hartford Electric
Light Company would have steam supplied by the Steam Heating Company s
boilers. By the evening of Saturday, April 7, 1883, all was ready, and at
sundown lights were turned on at the depot, at Rathbun’s Pharmacy,
Marwick’s Drug Store, Goerz Brothers’ Saloon, Conrad’s Bakery, and
Mansuy’s Carriage Shop at 17 Elm Street. On Pearl Street, a single
streetlamp was exhibited in front of the company’s plant. It was not an
imposing exhibition, but the Hartford Electric Light Company was at least
in business.
© 2024 Morris A. Pierce