History of District Heating in the United States

| Chronological List of District Heating Systems in the United States |

District Heating in Dubuque, Iowa

The Dubuque Steam Supply Company was organized in May 1879 and began service in October. 

The company's finances were hurt by the cold winter of 1880-1881 but managed to operate until 1894.  Before closing it was organized several times and was renamed the Dubuque Consumers Steam Supply Company.


References
1879 The Daily Herald, May 20, 1879
Dubuque Steam Supply Company organized 20 May 1879

1879 Engineering News 6:168 (May 24, 1879)
It is stated that steps are being taken to organize a company to heat Dubuque by steam under the Holly process.  The franchise has already been purchased, and a location for the works is now being decided upon.

1879 The Daily Herald, June 3, 1879.
Geo. B. Burch, et. al. of the Dubuque Steam Supply company petition for permission to lay pipes underground in the various streets of the city.  Granted and ordinance committee instructed to draw up ordinance regulating the same. 

1879 Engineering News 6:184 (June 7, 1879)
Dubuque, Iowa is to be heated by steam on the Holly plan.  A company has been formed, with a liberal amount of stock for that purpose.  The Davenport Democrat is noting this fact says:  "The time is coming right along when city heating by steam will be as common as city lighting by gas.  There is nothing more probably--and there is money in it to the companies and the consumers."

1879 Engineering News 6:331 (October 11, 1879)
The fourth and, for the present, the last boiler has been put into the Holly establishment on Iowa Street.  They are monsters in size, being five feet in diameter by sixteen feet in length, each having a capacity to generate heat enough every twenty-four hours to warm a space equal to one and one quarter million cubic feet.  A little arithmetic will show the enormous capacity of the four.  They are now being furnished with their beds and fire-places.  The furnaces are made by Thomas Murphy, of Pittsburgh, and are his own patent.  They work automatically, and by their ingeneous manner of construction reduce the coal to coke, and then feed the fires with it freed from carbon and other objectionable properties.  By this new process the furnaces become smokeless, a boon that will be appreciated by the public generally, and especially by those who live in the near neighborhood of the steam-generating house.  Each furnace, one to each boiler, has a capacity to reduce half a ton at once to pure coke.  The smoke stack is eighty feet high, with walls from sixteen inches to two feet thick, and a four-foot flue separated from the walls by an air-space.  It is a compact piece of masonry.  Then thousand feet of mains are laid already and about three thousand more feet will be laid before winter comes in.  In addition to this, laterals have been placed, making connections with thirty consumers, and abut as many more will be put in connection this season.  Considering the short time that has elapsed since the work was begun.  the managers of this enterprise have fairly entitled themselves to the palm for push.  Mr. Massey, who seems to be the driving spirit of the construction, expects to have everything in readiness to steam up between the 10th and 15th of October.  Dubuque Herald.

1880 The History of Dubuque County, Iowa
Pages 665-666:  Dubuque is entitled to a great deal of credit for her enterprise. There is no city in Iowa that can compare favorably with her in point of public improvements. There is no city of her size in the United States that can produce finer residences or more substantial business blocks, while in the matter of streets she has no equal in all Iowa, and few superiors in the United States.
In keeping with the steady step of progression that Dubuque ever maintains is the inauguration of the steam-heating project.
Here, again, the Key City shows her enterprise and her determination to keep ever in the van of progress. Indeed, this enterprise was started and pushed forward with so little commotion that one-half of the citizens of Dubuque did not realize when the great city was heated by steam from Dublin to Eagle Point, and from the river to West Dubuque.
The new building of the Steam Heating Company is located near the corner of Sixth and Iowa streets. In the basement the boilers are located, and in the upper stories the varied machinery necessary to disseminate the steam. The company use four large boilers, with which to generate the steam. This is an unusually large number, and will furnish ample steam to heat the entire city. The machinery is all of the most improved and latest manufacture, and such that it may always be relied upon to do its work, and do it well.
Citizens have thought so little about the matter, hardly believing it to be a possibility, that they have never learned the many advantages to be derived and enjoyed by this new steam-heating project. The operation is similar to that of lighting a city by gas. From the building where the steam is generated, large main pipes are laid along the leading streets of the city. From these mains, feeding pipes run and connect with any store, office or residence where the steam is wanted. The supply of steam may be regulated by the user, to suit his or her own convenience.
There will always be a sufficient amount on hand for use, and parties having pipes in their houses or places of business can use as much or as little as they choose—just as they would use gas.
Besides the advantages of having no fires to build, and security from conflagrations, there are others—no dust, no ashes, no smoke or cinders ; the rates of insurance have been lowered.
In case of fire, every house has the means to extinguish it right at hand. Perforated pipes may be placed in the rooms of the house, and when the flames break out the steam can be turned on, and the fire quenched. Steam may betaken from the mains and used to run fire engines with. In this way fire engines may be made much lighter and more easily and rapidly transported. Every house will be supplied with hot water at all times. All the cooking can be done by steam, and there will be no more worn and weary women roasting over hot stoves to prepare the daily meals. In fact, the advantages to be derived from this new enterprise are almost without number.
The Company was organized May 20, 1879, with the following officers who still serve: George B. Burch, President; John N. Manning, Superintendent; A. J. Van Duzee, Treasurer, and A. Palmer, Secretary.
The capacity of the boilers is 4,000,000 cubic feet per diem, with which 1,500,000 cubic feet of air can be heated. The pipes start from the feeder near the corner of Sixth and Iowa streets, on Iowa to Sixth, to Main from Second, to Fifteenth, to Locust, to Ninth, to Bluff, to Sixth, to Main, to Locust, to the works. In addition to the advantages cited, steam can be furnished to drive forty engines of twenty-five horse-power each, and to other uses that will be developed in time.

1881 "Failures," The Inter Ocean, June 29, 1881, Page 2.
Dubuque, June 28 -- The Steam Supply Company of this city, running for the past two winters, has failed.

1884 "The Distribution of Steam in Cities," by William P. Shinn, Vice President New York Steam Company, Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers 12:632-638 (February 1884) | also here |
Page 635:  System has been in operation for five winters, with two and one-eighth miles of mains, and seven 50 horsepower boilers.  The company is supplying 250 horse-power of steam to 140 customers for heating purposes only.  The plant was constructed too cheaply, and has not been a financial success.  It is now earning a small surplus, and consumers are all delighted with the service.

1885 Steam Using: Or, Steam Engine Practice, by Prof. Charles Augustus Smith
Page 291:  Details on Lockport, Dubuque, Auburn, Detroit and Milwaukee.

1894 Dubuque Daily Herald, May 13, 1894
The Steam Heating Company has closed down for good!

Dubuque Steam Supply Company, Encyclopedia Dubuque


© 2024 Morris A. Pierce