History of District Heating in the United States

| Chronological List of District Heating Systems in the United States | District Heating Studies | District Heating in Rochester, New York | Individual Building Heating Systems |

District Heating Summary Document (pdf)

District heating has a very long history, with the system in Chaudes-Aigues, France, having operated continuously since 1332 (see 1828, 1992 and 1999 references below).  Dutch inventor Cornelius Drebbel proposed a district heating scheme for London in 1623.

Although at least a few industrial and institutional facilities in the United States had installed district heating systems prior to 1877, including an 1853 system at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.  [USNA installed a high-temperature hot water system that began operation in June 1969.]  The first successful commercial system to heat multiple buildings from a single heating plant was introduced by Lockport, New York inventor Birdsill Holly, who secured several patents for his idea and introduced his district heating system there in 1877 after forming the Holly Steam Combination Company, Ltd., with Dr. David F. Bishop, Barnett D. Hall, Samuel Rogers, Francis N. Trevor, Isaac H. Babcock and Mortimer M. Southworth.  The Holly steam system had been introduced into nineteen cities by 1881.

Holly's system attracted several competitors, the first of which was William E. Prall, whose Prall Union Heating Company built a demonstration plant in New York City that hosted a meal for the American Society of Civil Engineers on November 11, 1880, at which the food was cooked used superheated water from the plant.  Prall was unable to gain financial backing until Theodore N. Vail formed the National Heating Company and built plants in Washington, D. C. and Boston.  The Boston plant operated from 1887 to 1889 before shutting down due to corrosion in the return water lines to the plant.

Holly's success led to the January 1881 incorporation of the American District Steam Company with a capital of $10 million.  This company continued to develop new plants well into the Twentieth Century and survives as Adsco Manufacturing LLC in Buffalo.

The introduction of electric lighting in the early 1880s led to a large number of generating plants built with non-condensing steam engines, whose exhaust steam was often distributed for buildings.  This was widely adopted and resulted in the enormous growth of the district heating industry in the early 20th Century.   

This study has identified 480 commercial district heating systems that were built between 1877 and 2020, with 397 (83%) of those built by 1918 and 68 still operating.  A breakdown by time periods is shown in the following table: 

Number of Commercial District Heating Systems built each year from 1877 to 2022	Number of Commercial District Heating Systems operating each year from 1877 to 2022

References about American District Heating | References about Foreign District Heating |
1749 Benjamin Franklin proposed heating several row houses using a single stove-furnace in a 1749 letter.  It is not known if he actually built it and no copy of this letter has been found
“I have been engaged for years now on the better heating of buildings. With this view I have arranged a new-invented construction for heating houses in rows. If health continues 1 hope to complete this ingenious plan before the end of year. Nothing could be more simple than it is. The drawing laid down to scale makes the plan clear. An iron stove-furnace to be set in a chamber beneath the ground will use as a flue an iron box-pipe of ten inches across in every way joined in a faucit and laid below the floors to the clear level. To prevent burning let it be enclosed by brick walls with tiled covered tops to the common level between the wood of the floor and the heat pipe. The smoke and hot gas is draughted to a common flue by the same size at the far house of the row. By experiment I have proved that a good and ample heat could be had in one and all dwellings and complete confidence may be reposed in such constructions.”
See "District Heating is not new, Benjamin Franklin devised a plan," by Colin Johnston Robb, Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 30(4):177.

1836 "New Modes of Heating Buildings," Mechanics' Magazine, and Journal of the Mechanics' Institute 7(6):321-323 (June 1836)
Page 323:  I have been told that Mr. Perkins says he can heat a whole parish from one fire.

1867 "Lectures on Ventilation," by Lewis W. Leeds, Journal of the Franklin Institute, 84(2):183 (September 1867)
Page 65:  I believe then we shall have steam pipes laid through our streets, the same as gas and water now are.  The present system of each man keeping up separate fires all over his house is as crude,  and extravagant, and unnecessary as it would be for every man to make his own gas or have his own well for water.

1869 An act to incorporate the Steam Heating Fuel Company of Pennsylvania.  July 2, 1869.
Corporators: D. Morris, J. M. Rogers, R. S. League, J. C. Sturdivant, J. P. Rees, B. W. Oliver; capital stock $500,000 divided into shares of one hundred dollars each; corporation is authorized to borrow any sum or sums of money not exceeding one million dollars.  [This bill was introduced in the legislature as the Steam Heating Fuel Company of Philadelphia.]

1870 "Exhaust Steam for Heating Purposes," by Charles E. Emery, American Artisan 10:162-163 (March 16, 1870)

1870 Yale College builds a heating plant to supply Farnam, Lawrenoe and Durfee dormitories,.

1871 St. Albans Daily Messenger, October 23, 1871, Page 2.
Heating Chicago by underground steam pipes.

1871 "Heating of Cities by Steam," Middlebury Register, November 7, 1871, Page 2.

1873 "To Warm Buildings," Bridgeport Standard, January 2, 1873, Page 2.
Yale College has also resorted to this mode of heating several of the largest buildings on the college grounds. A deep excavation was made on the corner of Elm and High streets and covered with a roof, the eaves of which are just above the surface of the ground, like an ice house. In this pit they generate the steam which rushes through large pipes, under ground, like gas pipes, to the several buildings, and is distributed through rooms designed to be heated and thus the necessity of building fires in the buildings is avoided.

1873 An act to incorporate the Boston Steam Supply Company, March 8, 1873.
Joseph Sawyer, Sewall H. Fessenden, John G. Webster, John A. Coleman, Ellsworth Torrey, for the purpose of supplying steam in the city of Boston.  Capital stock shall not exceed one million dollars, divided into shares of the par value of one hundred dollars.

1873 "Public Steam Supply," The Bayonne Herald and Greenville Register, March 15, 1873, Page 1.

1873 John A. Colman, Improvement in systems of supplying steam, U. S. Patent No. 141,034, Patented July 22, 1873.
A system for supplying steam or steam and water from a central station to buildings throughout a city or district for extinguishing fires, the steam also being employed for motive power, heating purposes, &c.

1875 "The Fireside of the Future," The Evening Post (New York, New York), December 29, 1875, Page 2.
Any block of buildings might be heated as easily as are the great inns and other large buildings, if the several owners would only join hands; but if they will not there is place and profit for a steam heating company in New-York. A company organized as the gas companies are, with boiler houses and steam mains properly jacketed, could furnish heat to houses at a much smaller cost than any householder can make it for himself, and such a company would not long lack business. The insurance associations would lend it powerful aid by their influence, and every physician would become a personal advocate of its cause.

1875 History of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers 

1876 Plan of First Underground Steam Main constructed in the United States.
[Holly installed this line in 1876.]

1876 The Holly Steam Combination Company, Limited, Lockport
Preliminary Certificate Filed November 27, 1876
Final Certificate of Incorporation, January 17, 1877
Capital $25,000
Business:  Manufacturing and putting into use machinery, pipes and appliances for supplying steam for heating, and machine labor.

1876 "A Project to Heat a City by Steam," Lockport Daily Union, November 28, 1876, Page 4.

1876 "A New Experiment--Mr. Holly Proposes to Heat Whole Cities by Steam--Some of the Benefits of This New Invention Explained--Likewise the Drawbacks," Rochester Union and Advertiser, December 1, 1876, Page 2.

1876 Lockport Daily Journal, December 2, 1876, Page 1.
The  Rochester  Union  makes  itself   merry  over  the  proposition  of Mr. Holly, of Lockport, to heat cities, &c., by  steam. The Union calls it impracticable, and substantially treats it as a visionary scheme. It is, of course, unfair, as usual, in its deductions, and inclined to deride what it cannot, or for the sake of abusing   somebody, will not, understand.   The Union folk may yet see the time when they will be glad to have the steam turned off either under Mr. Holly's plan—or somebody's else in the "sweet by-and-by."

1876 "Heating Cities by Steam," Rochester Union & Advertiser, December 6, 1876, Page 2.

1876 "A Brilliant Device," Indianapolis Sentinel, December 7, 1876, Page 7.
Nothing Less Than to Heat a Whole City by Steam. from Rochester Times.

1876 The Daily Journal of Commerce (Kansas City, Missouri), December 9, 1876, Page 1.
Mr. Holly, the inventor of the Holly water-works, proposes to beat the entire city of Lockport, by steam. The idea is not a novel one, as it has been brought up at various times and rejected by practical minds, who considered it impracticable. Mr. Holly has furnished cold water to many cities, including Kansas City, which, figuratively speaking, he has kept in hot water most of the time without extra charge.

1876 Engineering News 3:396 (December 30, 1876)
The Lockport, N.Y. papers report that the curious experiment of heating the city with steam, after the manner as it is lighting with gas, is soon to be tried.  It is not thought possible to have one boiler do the job, but the city is to be divided in districts, and each district is to have its separate boiler.  A good chance apparently for loss of heat and condensation.  When the houses are all piped some invention genius will be called on for a meter to register the "mode of motion" which used to be called caloric.

1877 "Mr. Holly's Steam Heating Apparatus," Buffalo Courier, January 5, 1877, Page 2. | Part 2 |

1877 "Holly Steam Combination Company Election," Lockport Daily Union, January 8, 1877, Page 3.

1877 "Heating City Houses by Main Pipes," Scientific American 36(1):9 (January 6, 1877)
A paragraph is going the rounds of the newspapers just now, stating that a very novel and at the same time interesting experiment is soon to be attempted in Lockport, N. Y., by Mr. Holly, the waterworks pump inventor. This experiment is to heat the whole city with steam, after the same manner as it is lighted with gas. Pipes are to run to the different houses, and all the occupant has to do is to turn on a faucet and obtain all the heat he wants. But unfortunately for Mr. Holly, the idea of heating cities from furnaces is not new. It has been suggested a number of times by different persons, and if we mistake not, Mr. L. W. Leeds, author of a work on ventilation and an engineer, in this specialty, tried to organize a company for heating this city by hot air or steam from furnaces placed in different sections of the city and connecting the heat by pipes to our houses in the same way as water and gas are supplied.

1877 "The Coming Age of Steam," The Evening Post (New York, New York), January 26, 1877, Page 2.
It has been somewhat more than a year since the Evening Post first suggested the propriety of heating towns and cities by steam, the steam to be furnished to householders by a company, precisely as gas is already furnished. When we made this suggestion and pointed out the desirability of its adoption we had little doubt that in due time some company would act upon it, but we had little reason to expect that practical measures would follow as speedily as they have done.

1877 "Heating a City by Steam," The World (New York, New York, January 26, 1877, Page 5.

1877 "Holly's Heating System," Lockport Daily Union, January 29, 1877, Page 3.
The New York World of Friday devotes a large space in its columns to explaining Mr. B. Holly's system of warming a city by underground transmission of heat.

1877 "The Tide for the Holly Steam Heating Company," Lockport Daily Union, January 30, 1877, Page 3.

1877 "Heating a City by Steam," Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, January 30, 1877, Page 2 | a cleaner copy from the Chicago Tribune | also here |
Details of the Plan by Which Mr. Holly Will Heat Lockport.

1877 "More About Heating Cities by Steam," Rochester Union and Advertiser, January 30, 1877, Page 2.

1877 "The Holly Steam Heating Project," Lockport Daily Union, January 31, 1877, Page 3.

1877 "Wholesale Warming," Indiana State Sentinel, February 7, 1877, Supplement Page 4
Mr. Holly's Plan for Heating Whole Cities by Steam.  Extracts from his recent book.

1877 "Corporation Proceedings," Lockport Daily Journal, February 28, 1877, Page 4.
Petition of the Holly Steam Combination Company (limited), for permission to open streets and alleys between Main street and High street (north and south), and Washburn street and Transit street (east and west) for the purpose of laying steam mains and pipes for heating and manufacturing purposes, etc. Adopted.

1877 "Heating a City by Steam," The Metal Worker 7:95 (March 3, 1877)

1877 William Bliss, Improvement in Heating Apparatus, U. S. Patent No. 192,559, Patented July 3, 1877.
High-pressure hot-air heating apparatus for cities or villages.  Air can be forced through a heating-furnace, and thence through a series of air-mains or distributing pipes laid under ground and in buildings, in order to conduct said heated air through all the streets of a village or city, and to serve in dwelling-houses for warming and culinary purposes.  The degree of heat which I maintain in the circulating air will average 600° Fahrenheit, the non-conducting substance with which I surround my pipes making this high degree of heat safe and practicable.

1877 "Steam Expansion which Causes an Explosion," The Buffalo Sunday Morning News, July 22, 1877, Page 3.

1877 Lockport Daily Union, December 14, 1877, Page 3.
The steam heating company has put steam into the Daniels building, corner of Market and Union streets, and will probably make a test in that locality this afternoon.

1878 "Steam Heating," Buffalo Express, February 2, 1878, Page 4. | Part 2 |
The Holly Steam Combination Company of Lockport - The New System in Practical Operation - Its Description
For the purpose of more fully investigating the subject, a representative of The Express yesterday visited Lockport, and the result of his inquiries is embodied in the following statement:  Birdsill Holly, Esq., of Lockport, N. Y., is the originator of the new system of conveying steam for heating purposes by means of 'pipes laid for long distances under ground.  In the month of May, 1876 he put his ideas into an experimentally practical shape by placing a small steam boiler in his yard and connecting 500 feet of underground pipe.  The result satisfied him that the plan was entirely feasible.

1878 "Validity of the Holly Patent," The New York Times, March 26, 1878, Page 1.
Lockport, N.Y., March 25.- The Holly Manufacturing Company, of this city, have just gained an important suit, involving the exclusive right of the company to construct water-works on the Holly system of direct pumping and without a receiver or stand-pipe.  The suit was commenced about four years ago at Indianapolis, Ind., before Judge Drumond, in the United States Circuit Court, who decided, affirming the validity of the Holly patent.

1878 "Heating a City by Steam," The New York Times, April 28, 1878, Page 2.
A meeting of the citizens of Auburn was held on the 25th inst. to consider the feasibility of introducing the Holly System of steam heating.

1878 Report on Lockport System, by Birdsill Holly, May 18, 1878
No copy of this has been found, but portions were reprinted in District Steam Supply by James Herbert Bartlett 1884:12-15 | also here | pdf |

1878 "Heating a Town by Steam from a Common Centre," by George Maw, The Times (London, England), May 25, 1878, Page 6.
A paragraph appeared in The Times a few weeks ago referring to the experimental heating of the houses of this city by steam laid on from a common centre of supply, and having today, through the courtesy of Mr. Everett, the Manager of the Holly Steam Combination Company, an opportunity of examining the works in operations, I desire to communicate the information I have received through the columns of The Times, as I am convinced that this novel application of steam is destined in a few years to completely revolutionize the heating of buildings in towns, and that heat can be laid on and supplied like gas from a common centre, within almost any reasonable distance, and at a cost much below that of any system of domestic heating in use.

1878 "New Uses for Steam Heating," The New York Times, June 2, 1878, Page 6. | Part 2 | also here |

1878 Announcement of the Holly Steam Combination Company Limited, of Lockport, N.Y. : for supplying heat to private dwellings and public buildings of every description, from a central point, through street mains and laterals, and to measure the steam used to each consumer. | also here | June, 1878

1878 William.E. Prall. Means for Heating and Ventilating Buildings. U. S. Patent No. 208,633. Patented Oct. 1, 1878

1878 Rochester Union and Advertiser, October 10, 1878, Page 2.
It is reported that the Holly Steam Heating Company are negotiating with parties in this city to have their system of heating introduced here.  The company asks $75,000 for the exclusive right to use their invention in Rochester.

1878 Democrat and Chronicle, October 14, 1878, Page 3.
The Lockport Union, of yesterday says:  A delegation of citizens from Rochester arrived here on the noon train, for the purpose of inspecting and negotiating with the Holly steam heating company, with a view of introducing the system in their city."

1878 "Heating by Wholesale," Springfield Republican, October 29, 1878, Page 5.
The Holly Steam-Heating System Successfully at Work.

1878 "Another Large Contract," Lockport Daily Union, September 5, 1878, Page 3.
Dr. Bishop, of the Holly Steam Combination Company, informed a Union reporter this morning that on Monday last a contract was made and signed with parties in Milwaukee, Wis., whereby they are to have the right to heat that city by steam under the Holly patent.  This it will be readily seen that the fame of the Holly system is spreading rapidly over our land.

1878 "Holly's Steam System," Chicago Tribune, November 7, 1878, Page 5 | Part 2 |
How Lockport is Heated by a Series of Steam-Pipes.
A lady who has the steam radiators expressed special gratification with the Holly system from purely a housekeeper's standpoint. She says there is no coal dust, and her paint doesn't require half the attention it did when she had stoves in the house, while her furniture is always cleaner.  
Another suggestion. and an important one, is the fact that as at present conducted in Lockport, the Holly system is rather a luxury for the rich than a blessing for the poor, is certainly enjoyed by those who would otherwise have furnaces rather than by the workingman who only supports one small fire and can ill afford that.

1878 Michigan Argus, November 25, 1878.
The Detroit Steam Supply Company, claiming to have improved on the Holly system which works so successfully at Lockport, N. Y., has commenced laying its mains. Its boiler house is located on Atwater street, midway between Woodward avenue and Griswold street, and the mains will run up Woodward avenue to Fort street, and up Griswold street to Lafayette avenue, with laterals. The boilers to be put in at the station named will have a capacity to supply the buildings within a radius of 2,500 feet, and if the experiment proves successful other boiler houses will be located at other points in the city. It is expected that steam will be furnished for heating and other purpose cheaper than private consumer can provide it on their own premises.

1878 "Heating Cities with Hot Water," The Baltimore Sun, December 21, 1878, Page 5.
The Prall Company, represented by William E. Prall, Wm. H. Webb. Frank E. Trowbridge and others, have applied for permission to heat public buildings and private houses in New York by hot water. At the same time General Spinola is pushing the Holly plan for heating the city by steam.

1878 "The Steam Supply Company," The Detroit Free Press, December 29, 1878, Page 1.
Detroit Steam Supply Company

[1878] The Prall System of Heating Cities and Supplying Power by Hot Water, by William E. Prall
It is true that the more modern and expensive establishments, such as hotels, public buildings, and a few of the more costly private houses, have been provided with steam-heating apparatus, but while it may justify the expenditure for separate steam generators, and maintenance thereof, in such places, it would not be within the means of the masses to do so, hence many attempts have lately' been made to make steam wholesale as it were, and retail it to customers both for heating, and power purposes, through pipes, extending over a large area, and at considerable distances from the generators or boilers.
Confined to comparatively small areas the system has proved profitable, as shown by the Manhattan Real Estate Association, who for many years past have supplied the district lying between Thomas and Worth streets on Broadway, New York, with both heat and power, from a battery of boilers. The system has met with equal success in other cities for many years, notwithstanding the immense loss from radiation and condensation.

1879 "A Big Blaze," The Boston Globe, January 18, 1879, Page 1.
Another conflagration in New York City. [The burned buildings were owned and heated by the Manhattan Real Estate Association, as mentioned in the above Prall document.]

1879 "The Holly System of Steam Heating," by Lewis M. Haupt, Read February 15, 1879,  Proceedings of the Engineers' Club of Philadelphia 1:100-103 (1879)

1879 Report upon the system of the Holly steam combination company limited, of Lockport, N.Y., by Herman Haupt, March 28, 1879.

1879 "The Holly System of Steam Heating," by Robert Briggs, C.E., The Plumber and Sanitary Engineer 2(6):155 (May 1879)

1879 "The Holly System of Steam Heating," Scientific American 41(8):114-115 (August 23, 1879)

1879 "Rival Systems of Heating," by Robert Briggs, C.E., The Plumber and Sanitary Engineer 2(13):314 (September 1, 1879)

1879 Democrat and Chronicle, November 17, 1879, Page 4.
The female department of the Western House of Refuge is now heated by the Holley steam heating process.  The steam is generated in the boiler connected with the main building.  The experiment was commenced Saturday night and is said to work to a charm.

1879 History of Cayuga County, New York, 1787-1879, by Elliot G. Storke
Page 216:  The Auburn Steam Heating Company.

1879 Appletons' Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events for 1878 
Pages 421-423: Holly System of Steam Heating

1880 Lockpon Daily Journal, April 7, 1880, Page 4.
Dr. SILSBY has now on exhibition at the office of the Holly Steam Combination Company, on Main street, one door west of HILL'S grocery, a patent steam heating stove. The steam is superheated by gas, and by its means all kinds of provisions can be cooked, etc., with the greatest possible dispatch.

1880 "Steam Cooked Dinner," Lockpon Daily Journal, April 8, 1880, Page 4.
For visitors from Cleveland investigating the Holly steam system

1880 An act to amend chapter two hundred and ninety of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, entitled "An act to amend chapter one hundred and forty-nine of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-four, entitled 'An act to amend an act, passed April twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, entitled 'An act to amend chapter six hundred and lifty-seven of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-one, entitled 'An act to amend an act, passed February seventeenth, eighteen hundred and forty-eight, entitled 'An act to authorize the formation of corporations for manufacturing, mining, mechanical or chemical purposes,'" passed April twentieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-one, and to legalize the formation and acts of certain corporations formed according to the provisions of chapter three hundred and seventy-four of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-seven. May 8, 1880.
§1. Or the supplying of hot water or hot air or steam for motive power, heating, cooking or other useful applications in the streets and public and private buildings of any city, village or town in this State,

1880 The "Prall" System of Supplying Heat and Power to Cities by means of superheated water, by Prall Union Heating Company

1880 "The 'Prall' System," The Plumber and Sanitary Engineer, 3:448 (October 15, 1880)

1880 "Annual Meeting of the American Society of Civil Engineers," Engineering News 7:391 (November 20, 1880)
Thursday, November 11.  To One hundred and Twenty-fifth street, where lunch awaited them at the establishment of the Prall Union Heating Co.

1880 "Roasting with Hot Water," Mining and Scientific Press 41:359 (December 4, 1880)
A most novel and interesting experiment is now being conduced at 256 West 125th street, New York city, where the Prall Union Heating Co., have erected a plant to demonstrate the principles involved in their system of supplying steam for power, or for heating purposes, and heat for cooking purposes.

1880 Ordinance granting rights to New York Steam Company (a corporation formed July 26, 1880). December 14, 1880.

1880 Third annual announcement, Holly Steam Combination Company | another copy |

1881 "The Prall System of Heating," Scientific American 44(1):2 (January 1, 1881)
During their recent convention in this city the members of the American Society of Civil Engineers were entertained by the Prall Union Heating Company. The dinner was cooked throughout by superheated water; and whatever may have been the cost on the relative economy of the system, the cooking was accepted as unquestionably satisfactory.
That bread can be baked and meat roasted by hot water may seem quite incredible to those who think of boiling water only as commonly seen in open vessels. Under atmospheric pressure water can be heated no higher than 212°, far below a roasting temperature. But when confined there is no limit to the temperature it may receive save the weakness or strength of the containing vessel.
The Union Heating Company propose to supply heat and power to houses by a system of pipes circulating water heated under pressure to about 376°, that is, a pressure of about 160 pounds above the atmosphere. In being conveyed a mile in boxed pipes, under ground, the water, it is claimed, loses not more than 1°, so that a temperature of 375° can be maintained in the pipes of a cooking range, a heat sufficient for all culinary purposes. The heating of houses can be effected either by air currents circulating around hot-water coils, or by means of steam radiators, the hot water being converted into steam in small converting chambers.
In the operation of the system, central boiler stations will be established in districts of about one square mile area. The pipes conveying the superheated water from the central station and back again, are laid in the same trench, and are so connected as to allow a forced circulation. The return pipe conveys to the generator all the water not drawn off for domestic or other purposes, thereby saving all the heat not available for heating purposes or for steam power.
The alleged advantages of this system of circulating superheated water over systems of steam heating consist in the smaller size and cost of the service pipes; in the smaller loss of heat by radiation and condensation, owing to the smallness of the pipes; and the saving of fuel through the return of all the unused condensed water to the central generator.
At the trial station at 125th street about 3,000 feet of pipe have been laid. The water to be circulated is heated to about 342°, and is said to be driven through the system at such a rate that no water is allowed to be more than fifteen minutes away from the boiler. It is estimated that two or three cubic feet of water an hour will suffice for heating an ordinary city house, and that the cost to consumers will be much less than with any other system of heating. To determine this, however, we are inclined to think that something more than brief experimental trials, under the management of the company's engineers, will be necessary. However promising a system may be theoretically, serious difficulties are apt to be encountered when it is put to the test of practical use at the hand of ignorant and unskillful servants. In the ordinary use of steam at low pressure for domestic purposes, leaking joints and valves are a source of constant trouble; much more must they be troublesome under a pressure four or five times as great. At any rate the successful use of superheated water in the way proposed will necessitate a style of valve making and steam fitting marvelously better than builders and house owners are able to obtain now.

1881 Buffalo Weekly Express, January 27, 1881, Page 2.
The "American District Steam Company" is the name of a new company just formed at Lockport with the following officers : President. Dr. D. F. Bishop; Vice-President, W. C. Andrews; Secretary, B. D. Hall ; Treasurer, J. H. Babcock. The capital stock is to be $10,000,000, consisting of 100,000 shares at $100 a share.

1881 Northern Tribune (Cheboygan, Michigan), February 12, 1881, Page 1.
The Michigan Pipe company, of Bay City, has contracted to supply all of the wooden casing pipe needed by the American District Steam company, of Rochester.  The A.D.S. Co. is interested in putting in steam supply pipes in various cities, and the wooden pipe made at Bay City is used as an outer casing for their subtranean steam pipes.

1881 "How Robbed by Daylight," The New-York Times, March 18, 1881, Page 2.
Prall New-York Heating Company stock certificates stolen from Mrs. Prall.

1881 "A New Enterprise," Decatur Daily Republican. April 5, 1881, Page 3.
Mr. E. L. Holly, superintendent of the American District Steam Co., (Holly System), which has offices at Lockport, N.Y., and at New York City.  Mr. Holly stated that there were now 19 cities in the United States being heated by the Holly system, and that all the works give satisfaction.  Nineteen other cities in the country will be by steam next winter, as companies have been organized for that purpose.

1881 "Experiments with Non-Conductors of Heat," by Charles E. Emery, Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 2:34-40 (May 1881)

1881 "Cooking by Steam," Cincinnati Daily Gazette, June 2, 1881, Page 4.
Triumphant Success at the Trial of the Holly Steam Heating Apparatus

1881 "The Distribution of Light and Heat in New York City," Scientific American 45(21):319-320 (November 19, 1881) | also here |

1881 "The Combination System of Steam Heating for Towns and Villages," by Douglas Galton, Journal of the Society of Arts 30:84-94 (December 9, 1881)

1882 Six per cent preferred stock, the American District Steam Company, March 1882.

1882 Philadelphia Steam Supply Company, April 25, 1882. | also here |

1883 "General Steam Supply for New York City," Engineering and Building Record 7:171 (January 25, 1883)

1883 "Note Relating to 'Water-Hammer' in Steam Pipes," by Robert H. Thurston, Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 4:404-409 (June 1883)

1883 The New York Steam Company
General map showing the locations of properties owned by the Company for ten steam stations now operated and to be constructed; also the principal streets in which steam mains are now laid and intended to be laid during the seasons of 1884, '85, '86. The mains to be extended as fast as possible to cover 250 miles of streets.

1884 New York Steam Company system of street steam distribution in New York City. Statement of Progress made to January 1, 1884.

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 | Map showing the Location of the Mains and Services of The New York Steam Co. |
Includes details on systems in Lockport, Springfield, Dubuque, Denver, Hartford, Lynn, New Haven, Troy, Detroit, Milwaukee, and New York City

1884 The Times Herald (Port Huron, Michigan), July 24, 1884, Page 2.
The Detroit Steam Supply Company are going out of business September 1.  The enterprise has proved a failure financially and the company is notifying its patrons of its conclusion of business.

1884 District steam supply : heating buildings by steam, from a central source, by James Herbert Bartlett | also here | reprinted in Scientific American Supplement  487:7772-7774 (May 2, 1885) | Tables |
Includes details about 18 steam systems.

1884 The Principles of Ventilation and Heating and Their Practical Application, by John Shaw Billings

1885 Dr David Fowler Bishop (1828-1885) grave
Homeopathic physician in Lockport.  First president of the Holly Steam Combination Company and American District Steam Company.

1885 "Heating Buildings by Steam from a Central Source," by J. H. Bartlett, Scientific American Supplement 487:7772-7774 (May 2, 1885)

1885 Bulletin for Agents No. 7, The Edison Company for Isolated Lighting, August 16, 1885.
Pages 14:  Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Lawrence (Mass.) Besides selling the current for lighting, they have connected with their station some 20 motors; they are supplying current for the regulation of clocks, and their exhaust steam is sold for heating and other purposes.

1886 "Transmission of Power by Electricity," by Albert Felton Upton, Proceedings of the National Electric Light Association, Second Annual Convention 1:53-57 (February 1886)
Page 57:  The exhaust steam will also be used for heating neighboring in cold weather.
Page 60:  There are a great many parties East now who are selling their steam for heating purposes.

1886 Buffalo Courier, June 6, 1886, Page 4.
On the 15th inst. a steam heating convention will be held in Lockport, composed of superintendents, engineers and parties who are interested in the Holly steam heating system wherever it has been introduced.  The boilers at the steam building on Elm street will be put in full operation and various tests made.

1886 "The Steam Men," Lockport Daily Journal, June 15, 1886, Page 3.
National Convention of Steam Engineers and Superintendents of Companies Held in this City To-day.  

1886 "The Second Days Meeting of the Steam Engineers," Lockport Daily Journal, June 16, 1886, Page 3.

1886 Buffalo Commercial, June 16, 1886, Page 4.
Parties interested in the Holly steam heating system are here from all parts of the country.  During the week experiments will be made and meetings of the representatives of the various companies will be held.

1886 American District Steam Company Holly System of Street Distribution in Cities and Villages for purposes of heating and power supply. | also here |

1887 "Electric Motors," by Wm. Baxter, Jr., Proceedings of the National Electric Light Association 3:373-409 (February 1887)
Page 438:  It is said that in New York city the New York Steam Company is furnishing power to four hundred and thirty-five engines.

1887 Reports of Proceedings of the City Council of Boston for the Year 1887
Pages 282-284: March 21, 1887.  Boston Heating Company

1887 "The Comparative Value of Steam and Hot Water for Transmitting Heat and Power," by Charles E. Emery, Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 8:512-528 (May, 1887)

1887 "Men of Steam," Altoona Times, June 16, 1887, Page 1.
Williamsport, June 15. The annual session of the Holly District Steam Engineers, Superintendents and Managers' Association opened here to-day with a good attendance. The organization is devoted to matters connected with steam supply interests and represents the majority of the States in the Union. President Foreman, of this city, presides. Reports were presented today by the Secretary and Treasurer. Various papers will be read to-morrow.

1887 Investments in New York City, New York Steam Company, July 1, 1887

1887 "The Plant of the Boston Heating Company," by Arthur V. Abbott, Read before the Boston Society of Civil Engineers, November 16, 1887, Association of Engineering Societies 7(10):389-410 (October 1888)

1887 Central station heating: address before meeting of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers, November 16, 1887, by Arthur V. Abbott, National Heating Company (1888)

1887 Report made to the National Superheated Water Company on the Prall system of supplying heat for cooking, heating and steam power, by Benjamin Franklin Isherwood

1888 "Heating Company at Work," The Boston Globe, January 7, 1888, Page 6.
The Boston Heating Company formally began operations for the winter yesterday evening. After all the mains boilers and pumps had been tested and found to be in satisfactory condition. Mr. Richards, the President of the company. turned the valve which set the hot water circulating in the complex system of pipes.

1888 "A Description of the Plant of the Boston Heating Company," by Arthur V. Abbott, Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers 16:870-887 (February 1888)

1888 Theodore R. Timby, Heat and Power Supply System, U. S. Patent No. 379,744, Patented March 20, 1888.
To furnish a sufficient and equable supply of heating air to houses at a small cost.

1888 "Heating Cities by Steam," by Charles E. Emery, Journal of the Franklin Institute 126:199-222 (March 1888)

1888 "Heating Cities by Steam," by Charles E. Emery, Scientific American Supplement, 25(639supp):10200-10203 (March 31, 1888)

1888 Report of the Board of Experts on the Central Station Heating and Power System of the National Heating Company, by Rossiter W Raymond, C. C. Martin and George W. Plympton, March 26, 1888

1888 "Station J, New York Steam Co.," Engineering and Building Record 17:279 (April 7, 1888) | 17:293 (April 14, 1888) |

1888 "The Plant of the Boston Heating Company," Engineering and Building Record 17:315 (April 28, 1888)

1888 "The Prall System of Distributing Heat and Power from Central Stations," by E. D. Meier, Read May 2, 1888, Journal of the Association of Engineering Societies 7(8):305-313 (August 1888)

1888 "Holly Steam Engineers," Springfield Republican, June 21, 1888, Page 3.
An Important Convention in This City.  The association numbers 45 members.

1888 "Close of the Steam-Heat Conference," Springfield Republican, June 22, 1888, Page 4.

1888 "Holly Steam Engineers," Harrisburg Daily Independent, June 22, 1888, Page 1.
Springfield, Mass, June 22 -

1888 "Holly Steam Engineers," Engineering News 19:543 (June 30, 1888)
The Holly District Steam Engineer's, Superintendents' and Managers Association held its third annual convention at Springfield, Mass. June 22, and elected the following officers:
President, R. H. GALLAGHER, Harrisburg, Pa.: First Vice-President, C. E. EMERY New York; Second, E. P. HOLLY, Springfield, Mass. Third, G. W. SHOUCK, Wilkesbarre, Pa.: Fourth, WILLIAM RIDLEY, Denver, Col.; Secretary, IRA A. HOLLY, New Haven; treasurer, ROBERT MOWBREY; Financial Committee, A. Z. SHOCK, Bloomsburg, Pa., J. D. WALSH, of Lockport, N.Y., and A. D. MERRITT, Springfield.
The following papers were read and discussed: "High and Low Pressures for Heating Buildings from a Central Station", by R. H. GALLAGHER, Harrisburg. Ha.: "Crude Oil and Coal Compared as Fuels", by E. P. HOLLY; "Can Cooking be done economically by Steam?" by CHARLES S. CHASE, New York: "General Management of the Holly Steam Plants”, by A. Z. SCHOCK, Bloomsburg: "Incrustation in Boilers", by WILLIAM RIDLEY, Denver, Col. “Is it Advisable to Heat Feed Water by Direct Steam" by B, C. SMITH, Auburn, N. Y.: "Cost of Maintaining Steam Meters" by JOHN WALSH, Lockport, N. Y.; "Saving Fuel by the Automatic Regulation of the Damper", by N.C. LOCKE, Salem; "Combustion of Fuel and Boiler Furnaces", by THOMAS MURPHY, Detroit, Mich.; "Rocking Grate Bars", by C. B. HOLLY, Phillipsburg, Pa.

1888 The Manufacturer and Builder 20:214 (September, 1888)
Transactions of the Holly District Steam Engineers, Superintendents and Managers' Association during the Year 1887. New Haven, Conn.: Geo. W. Moffatt. 1888.
The above-named pamphlet contains the transactions of the second annual meeting of the superintendents, chief engineers and managers of the Holly District Steam Supply companies of various cities throughout the United States, which was held at Williamsport, Pa., June 15-16 of the present year.  It embraces papers on Piping Buildings for Steam Heat, by Geo. S. Chase, of Bellefonte, Pa.; The Most Economical Way of Generating steam-the size and Kind of Boilers, by Wm. Ridley, of Denver, Col.; On the Rating of the Horse-Power of Steam Boilers, by W. P. Trowbridge, of New York, and C. B. Richards, of New Haven, Conn.; besides a number of reports upon subjects of technical interest to the members. The association exhibits a commendable degree of activity, and will doubtless prove of much advantage to its members as a means of mutual improvement.

1888 Central station heating and power supply [by the use of superheated water], by Rochester Superheated Water Company

1889 "The Uses of Steam," The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 26, 1889, Page 6 | pdf |
The new Holly System of Steam Distribution.  Includes a list of installations.  This appears to be reprinted from a publication of the American District Steam Company that is otherwise unknown.

1889 "The District Distribution of Steam in the United States," by Charles Edward Emery, with discussion, Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 97:196-264 (1889)

1889 "Report of the Board of Experts on the Central Station Heating and Power Supply System of the National Heating Company, New York, 1888," by Dr. Rossiter W. Reymond, C. C. Martin, and Prof Geo. W. Plympton, Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 97:471-473 (1889)
Report of the plant of the Boston Heating Company

1890 "Steam Heating From Central Stations," Association of Edison Illuminating Companies 6:64-66 (September 1890)
Steam heating being used in Kansas City, Detroit and Boston

1890 American District Steam Company Holly System of Street Distribution in Cities and Villages for purposes of heating and power supply.

1891 "Distribution of Steam from Central Stations," by F. H. Prentiss, Proceedings of the National Electric Light Association 9:58-78 (February 1891)

1891 "District Steam Systems," by Charles E. Emery, Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers 24:188-222 (March 1891)
Page 190:  Plate XVIII showing pipe details
Page 202:  Plate XIX showing pipe details
Page 205:  It would be entirely practicable in some cities to carry out a plan proposed for San Francisco, to wit, to use high steam pressure in the manufacturing and office neighborhoods, discharge the exhaust steam into other steam mains, and conduct the same to dwelling neighborhoods in the vicinity, for heating purposes, from which the return water would either be discharged into the sewers at a low temperature under proper supervision, or if water was high priced, be returned to the station.

1891 "Steam Heating," by William E. Worthen, Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers 24:206-222 (March 1891)
Page 216:  Plate XXI showing steam heating systems for mills

1891 Electrical Enterprise 2(24):477-478 (December 12, 1891)
The sale of residual products of gas works pays the dividends, the salaries, and a portion of the operating expenses. As good a showing can be made by electric light stations conveniently situated. The exhaust steam of a non-condensing plant has nine-tenths of all the heat absorbed by the water evaporated. This steam is worth for heating purposes than the cost of the coal burned. The demand for heat is greater in the months of longest lighting.  An excellent field for an experiment to determine the possibilities in the utilization of exhaust steam is in the neighborhood of the Head place station of the Edison Illuminating Company.  An engineer who has had experience in this line declares that the company could sell $20,000 worth of steam a year without increasing the back pressure on the exhaust more than five pounds at the utmost.

1892 "Heating a City with Exhaust Steam," Street Railway Review 2:69-72 (February, 1892)
A Description of the Ottumwa, Iowa, Electric Railway and how it Increased its Dividends

1892 "Light, Heat and Power Service at the Thompson-Houston Company, Buffalo," Western Electrician 10:118 (February 27, 1892)

1892 "The Utilization of Exhaust Steam for Heating by the Springfield, Ill., Electric Light & Power Company's Plant," by W. Forman Collins, The Electrical Engineer 13(213):545-548 (June 1, 1892)

1892 "The Utilization of Exhaust Steam for Heating Purposes," by C.M. Morse, Electrical Review 19(16):365 (February 20, 1892)
Thompson-Houston Plant in Buffalo

1892 "Firemen go out," San Francisco Chronicle, November 27, 1892, Page 11.
Employees of the New York Steam Company Strike.

1892 Holly system of direct and exhaust steam distribution in cities and villages for heating and power, American District Steam Company

1892 "Protection of Underground Steam Pipes Used in Connection with Central Steam Heating Plants," by R. C. Carpenter, Engineering Record 27:34-35 (December 10, 1892)

1893 "Heating Plant for Yale," The Morning Journal-Courier, August 18, 1893, Page 4.
The corporation has decided to hereafter use the old plant for the brick row, Farnam, Lawrenoe and Durfee dormitories, and to construct a new plant for Alumni hall, Dwight hall, the old and new libraries and the commons.

1893 Mary C. Works (1810-1893) grave.  Widow of Samuel Works, their house in Lockport was the first to be connected to Holly's steam system in 1876.

1894 "Childs's Soft Coal Bill," The Evening World, March 3, 1894, Page 2.
Health Department Counsel Looking Into the Measure.
Henry Steinert, counsel for the Health Department, this morning began an investigation into bill No. 298") Introduced by Senator Chllds In the Senate on Jan. 31 In the interest of the consumers of bituminous or soft coal.
The bill Is believed to be the result of the recent raid by the Health Department on the New York Steam Company's plant to suppress the black smoke nuisance. The officials of the company were arrested and the case Is still pending.
Lawyer Steinert wants to ascertain who the originators of the bill to legalize the use of bituminous coal are. It deprives the Health Department of the power to suppress the nuisance, and embodies so many technicalities that It would be difficult, if not impossible, to secure a conviction under it.

1895 The Electrical Engineer 25:36 (January 5, 1895)
The Home Heating & Lighting Company, Toledo, O., capital stock $50,000, has been incorporated to do heating and lighting by electricity, steam and hot water, etc.  J. F. Zahm, Homer Yaryan, and R. W. Smith are interested.

1895 "Central Station Hot-Water Heating," Heating and Ventilation 5(3):3 (February 15, 1895)
Yaryan plant in Toledo

1895 American steam and hot-water heating practice, from The Engineering Record

1895 "Wallace C. Andrews," America's Successful Men of Affairs 2:19-21
President of The New York Steam Co., a man of marked vigor and enterprise, is one of a large number of successful Ohio men, now engaged in business in New York city. Mr. Andrews is of New England descent. He is a son of the late Norman Andrews, who moved from Connecticut to a farm on the Western Reserve in Ohio in 1816.
Mr. Andrews began life iipon the farm, and partly by inheritance, partly in the wholesome life of the country, acquired the physical vigor which enabled him to perform great labors during his subsequent career. He revealed a talent for business early in life. He succeeded from the start, and, by the strictest economy, managed to save a little capital. When coal was discovered in the Mahoning Valley, his brother, the late Chauncey H. Andrews of Youngstown, O., and he, invested their savings in explorations for coal and the purchase of mines. They developed a large number of different properties. At first, they met with poor success, but finally made valuable discoveries. The two men looked after details themselves, conducted their business economically, and were able to mine coal, even after the profits had fallen to 25 cents a ton. During the petroleum excitement, they became operators in that industry also. They were also promoters of many new enterprises. They built furnaces and rolling mills in Ohio, and now and then a small railroad, and finally became the principal stockholders in a railroad between Cleveland and Pittsburgh. They bought several coal mining companies, working the mines themselves, but afterwards selling them at an advance. In this way, in time, they became the largest miners of coal in the State.
At a later day, they bought the bed of one of the old-time Ohio canals and used it for a railroad between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, a rival to the one they had already built.  Their operations were usually profitable, and the two brothers each gradually amassed a fortune. With other capitalists, they finally secured a large area of coal lands in the Hocking Valley in Ohio, and were interested in the purchase of The Hocking Valley Railroad and its connecting lines and in the transaction by which the roads were consolidated and the lands purchased. The schemes of Mr. Andrews were usually started with comparatively little capital, but the projector threw his whole energy into development, secured the investment of outside capital, made his projects profitable, and then often sold his interests. By reinvesting rapidly, working somewhat with borrowed money, making use of his more valuable securities as collateral, he has succeeded remarkably in the acquisition of wealth.
Mr. Andrews is one of the promoters of the original Standard Oil Co. and was a director of the company for a long period of years and up to the formation of the Trust.  He is yet a large stockholder in the company. One of the most important of his enterprises is The New York Steam Co., a concern which supplies steam for heat and power by underground pipes in various sections of New York city, and has initiated a new era in the management of office buildings, by enabling their proprietors to dispense with the annoyances attending the production of steam in their own premises. Mr. Andrews is president of the company, and has managed its affairs with signal ability and success. He was lately president of The Standard Gas Light Co. of New York and is its largest stockholder. He is a director in many local corporations, a man of unusual business sagacity, of great power of application, and untiring energy, and his large fortune is entirely the product of constructive talent and commendable business methods. The Ohio Society of this city has enrolled him as one of its members from the beginning.

1895 One Hundred Years of American Commerce
Pages 357-363: Chapter LI. Stoves and Heating Apparatus, by Jeremiah Dwyer, President, Michigan Stove Company
Pages 362-363: Steam and Hot Water Heating

1896 "Methods of Insulating Underground Systems of Steam Piping," By R. C. Carpenter, Ithaca, N.Y., Transactions of the American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers 2:119-143 (January, 1896)

1896 "Big Exhaust Steam Heating System," The Street Railway Review 6(5):317 (May 15, 1896)
Philadelphia Heat, Light & Power Company.

1896 "Heating by Exhaust Steam," The Street Railway Review 6(7):451-452 (July 15, 1896)
This system of heating is in extensive use by the Springfield, Ill., Electric Light & Power Company, the Terre Haute, Ind., Electric Railway Company, The Danville, Ill., Electric Light & Power Company, the St. Joseph, Mo., Light, Heat & Power Company and many others.

1897 "New York Steam Company's Plant," Heating and Ventilation 7:1-3 (June 15, 1897)
Page 2:  Map of steam distribution network

1897 "Utilization of Exhaust Steam," by George L. Thayer, Electrical Engineer 24:237-238 (September 8, 1897)

1898 "The Yaryan Heating System, Plant No. 2," Abstract of Thesis of Ralph Collamore and Chas O. Cook, The Michigan Technic 11:99-102 (1898)

1899 "Central Hot Water Heating Plant," by Arthur C. Loomis, Mattoon, Illinois, Annual Report of the Iowa Society of Engineers and Surveyors 14:198-202 (January 1899)
Yaryan hot water system at Mattoon, Illinois

1899 "Without Steam for Hours," The New York Times, February 28, 1899, Page 14.

1900 "Central Station Heating in Connection with Electric Lighting Plants," by W. H. Schott, Electricity 18:55 (January 31, 1900)

1900 "Central Station Heating in Connection with Electric-Lighting Plants," by W.H. Schott, Municipal Engineering 18(3):156-158 (March 1900)

1900 "Central Station Heating Plants," by C. C. Hammond, Power 20(4):18 (April 1900)

1900 "Utilization of Exhaust Steam for Heating," by Harry J. Frith, Proceedings of the Convention of the National Electric Light Association 19:116-144 (May, 1900)

1900 "Hot-Water Heating From a Central Station," by Homer T. Yaryan, Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 21:937-960 (May, 1900)
Page 949:  During the past two years the system I have described has been installed, and is now in successful operation in the following cities and towns : La Porte, Ind. ; Matton, Ill. ; La Crosse, Wis. ; Kenosha, Wis.; Alton, Ill.; Portage, Wis.; Boone, Perry, Ida Grove, Iowa Falls, and Mason City, Iowa.

1900 "Central Heating Stations," by Alton D. Adams, Municipal Engineering 18(6):351-356 (June 1900)

1900 "Central Station Heating Company," Municipal Engineering 18(6):411-412 (June 1900)
Isaac D. Smead, general manager and constructing engineer

1900 "Hot Water Heating from a Central Station" by Homer T. Yaryan, Scientific American Supplement 49(1278supp):20490-20491 (June 1900)

1900 "Utilization of Exhaust Steam for Heating," by H.J. Frith,  Municipal Engineering 19(1):35-41 (July 1900)
Superintendent Electric Light and Heating Company, Watseka, Ill.

1900 "Steam or Hot-water Heating from Central Stations," July 9, 1900 letter by I. H. Babock, American District Steam Company, Western Electrician 27:27 (July 14, 1900)

1900 "Two Revenues Instead of One:  Electricity as By-Product," by A. J. Stahl, La Porte, Ind., Proceedings of the Ohio Electric Light Association 6:27-35 (August 1900)

1900 "Explosion at New York Steam Company plant on Greenwich Street," The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 13, 1900, Page 1.

1900 "Heating by Exhaust Steam," Boston Evening Transcript, September 29, 1900, Page 21
Hot water system in Toledo, Ohio

1900 "Cost of Hot Water Heat," Indianapolis Journal, October 1, 1900, Page 8
Details of proposed Yaryan hot water system for Home Heating and Lighting Company.

1900 "Statistics on Hot Water and Steam Heating Plants," Municipal Engineering 19(5):412-414 (December 1900)
Page 414:  Table of Data Concerning Central Heating Plants using hot water and steam

1900 Test of Heating and Ventilating Plant Installed by Evans Almirall and Co. of New York City in Public School No. 22, by August Peter Sonnin Krebs and Arthur Samuel Blanchard, Thesis, Cornell University

1900 The History of Public Franchises in New York City: Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx, by Gustavus Myers
Pages 182-184:  Steam Heating

1901 "Some Notes on Central Station Heating," by William H. Bryan, Transactions of the American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers 7:97-131 (January 1901)

1901 "Utilization of Exhaust Steam," Street Railway Review, 11:71 (January 15, 1901)

1901 "Heating from Central Stations," by Alton D. Adams, Municipal Engineering 20(2):65-68 (February 1901)

1901 "A Central Heating Plant at Washington Court, O., Municipal Engineering 20(2):112-113 (February 1901)

1901 "Heating from Central Stations - A comparison with Private Heating Plants," by Alton D. Adams, Municipal Engineering 20(3):136-138 (March 1901)

1901 "Central Station Steam Heating Plant," Municipal Engineering 20(3):152 (March 1901)

1901 "Hot-Water Central Heating in Red Oak, Ia.," The Engineering Record, 43:307-308 (March 30, 1901)
Evans Almirall system

1901 "Central Station Heating," Municipal Engineering 20(4):195-202 (April 1901)
Smead hot water system at Washington Court House, Ohio.  Isaac D. Smead

1901 "The First Central Station Heating Plant on the Smead System," Municipal Engineering 20(4):243-244 (April 1901)

1901 "Steam Heating from Central Stations," by Charles R. Maunsell, Proceedings of the Convention of the National Electric Light Association 20:371-392 (May 1901)

1901 "Hot Water Plant," The Bedford Weekly Mail, May 10, 1901, Page 2.
List of 26 hot water systems using Homer T. Yaryan's design, installed by W.H. Schott

1901 "Design of Pipes for Hot Water Heating from Central Station," Electrical Review 38(20):616-617 (May 18, 1901)

1901 "New Franchise at Ottumwa," The Street Railway Journal 18(6):171 (August 10, 1901)
The Ottumwa Electric and Steam Company, of Ottumwa, Ia.  It was the first company in Iowa to do exhaust steam heating and has about 3 miles of pipe line, installed by the American District Steam Company.

1901 "Hot-Water Heating from a Central Station," by C. W. Niles, Fire and Water 30(14):356 (October 5, 1901)

1901 "Hot Water for Public Heating Systems," The Improvement Bulletin 25:10 (December 14, 1901)

1901 "Exhaust-steam Heating," Western Electrician 29:405-406 (December 21, 1901)

1902 "Central Heating Plant at Owatonna, Minn.," Municipal Engineering, 22(2):105 (February 1902)

1902 "Central Heating Plants in the United States," Engineering News 47:231-232 (March 20, 1902)

1902 The Municipal Year Book, edited by Moses Nelson Baker, April 1902
Pages xxiii-xxvii: Commercial Central Heating Stations.
[This table lists 122 stations in 119 cities with a population over 3,000, plus another 8 in cities with a population less than 3,000.  Moses Nelson Baker is best known for his water works publications.]

1902 "Hot-Water vs. Steam Heating," by J. F. Porter, Proceedings the National Electric Light Association 21:469-492 (May 1902)

1902 "Central Station Heating," by D. F. McGee, Red Oak, Ia., American Gas Light Journal 76:692-693 (May 12, 1902)
Red Oak, Iowa, Evans-Almirall hot water system, start October 1899

1902 "Many Gas Companies Supplying Heat," The Improvement Bulletin 28:10 (September 6, 1902)
Alton Railway, Gas and Electric Light Co., Alton, Ill.; Bellefonte Gas Co., Bellefonte, Pa.; Brice Gas and Electric Co., Mason City, Ia.; Champaign and Urbana Gas and Electric Railway Co., Champaign, ill.; Danville Gas, Electric Light and Street Railway Co., Danville, Ill.; Davenport Gas and Electric Co., Davenport, Ill.; Grand Forks Gas and Electric Co., Grand Forks, N. D.; Kenosha Gas and Electric Co., Kenosha, Wis.; Merchants' Electric Light and Power Co., Coshocton, O.; Muscatine Electric Railway Co., Muscatine, Ia.; Paris Gas Light and Coke Co., Paris, Ill.; People's Electric Light, Heat and Power Co., Greenville, Pa.; People's Electric Light, Heat and Power Co., Bedford, Ind.; Springfield Electric Light Co., Springfield, Mass.

1902 Central Electric Light and Power Stations, Bureau of the Census (1905)

1903 "Report of Committee on District Heating," by John W. Glidden, Proceedings of the Convention of the National Electric Light Association 22:363-381 (May 1903)
Your Committee on District Heating finds that there are about one hundred heating plants of this character in operation in the United States at the present time.  Possibly ten of these are live-steam heating plants, operating solely for the heating business.  The remainder are about two-thirds exhaust-steam heating plants, and one-third hot water heating plants.

1903 "Hot Water Heating from a Central Station," by C. W. Niles, Delaware, Ohio, The Metal Worker 59(20):60-61 (May 16, 1903)

1903  Central station heating at Urbana, Illinois, by Ralph Southward Drury and Roy Weaver Putt, thesis for the degree of bachelor of science in mechanical engineering, University of Illinois, June 1903

1903 "The Engineering of Heating Systems," Street Railway Journal, 22:389 (August 19, 1903)
William H. Schott, engineer, of Chicago, Illinois.

1903 "The Central Heating Plants of Indianapolis," William King Eldridge, Tenth Annual Convention of the American Society of Municipal Improvements 10:109-112 (October 1903)

1903 "The Central Heating Plants of Indianapolis," by W.K. Eldridge, Municipal Engineering 25(5):359-361 (November 1903)

1904 "Heating from a Central Station," by W. H. Pearce, Journal of the Western Society of Engineers 9(1):1-33 (February, 1904)

1904 "Central-station Heating," by W.H. Schott, Western Electrician 34:114-115 (February 6, 1904)
Abstract of paper read before the Northwestern Electrical Association of Milwaukee, February 20, 1904.

1904 Heating Cities by Steam, U.S. Patent 753,817, Wallace C. Andrews, March 1, 1904

1904 "Report of Committee on District Heating," by E. F. McCabe, Proceedings of the Convention of the National Electric Light Association, 23:436-496 (May 1904)
Includes anonymous data on 36 steam and 16 hot-water systems.

1904 "The Relation between Central Station Heating Plants and Existing Electric Light and Power Plants," by J. C. Hornung, The Iowa Engineer 4(1):10-13 (June 1904)

1904 "Central Station Heating," by W. H. Schott, Municipal Engineering 27:450-454 (December 1904)

1904 Brown's Directory of American Gas Companies 

1904 "Edisonia," a Brief History of the Early Edison Electric Lighting System, by the Association of Edison Illuminating Companies.
Page 65:  Pearl Street station.  The engines were non-condensing and exhausted into the atmosphere through exhaust feed-water heaters.

1905 "Central Station Heating Plants," Municipal Engineering 28(1):26-29 (January 1905)
Pages 27-28:  Table of Central Station Heating Plants; 38 hot water systems and 42 steam systems

1905 "A Study for a Central Power and Heating Plant at Washington," by Bernard R. Green and S. Homer Woodbridge, Engineering Record 51:167-169 (February 11, 1905)

1905 "The System of the Bloomington & Normal Railway, Electric & Heating Company," by C. H. Robinson, Street Railway Journal 25(21):934-937 (May 27, 1905)
Yaryan hot water system.  Sections of old and new heating pipe insulation.

1905 "Report of Committee on District Heating,"  Proceedings of the Convention of the National Electric Light Association, Volume 1, 24:410-430 (June 1905)
Pages 23-24:  Hot water plant of the Columbus, Ohio Public Service Company

1905 "Notes of the Design of Central-Station Hot-Water Heating Systems," by J. D. Hoffman, Transactions of the American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers 11:199-221 (July 1905)

1905 Improved Holly System of Direct and Exhaust District Steam Heating for Cities and Villages through Underground Mains, by American District Steam Company.

1905 "Steam Heating for Central Stations," by R. S. Wallace, The Technograph 19:30-44 (1905)

1906 "The Springfield, Ill., Light, Heat and Power Co's., Station and System," Electrical World 47(5):252-256 (February 3, 1906)

1906 "A Central Steam Heating and Power Plant," by W. N. Zurfluh, The Engineer  43(12):399- 401 (June 15, 1906)
Home Lighting, Power and Heating Company of Springfield, Ohio.  Steam first produced January 10, 1901.

1906 "Central Station Heating Plants," Municipal Engineering 31(6):454-456 (December 1906)
List of hot water, steam and other heating plants.

1906 Heat and Light from Municipal and Other Waste, by Joseph Gerald Branch

1906 Steam Generation, Pipe-fitting Tools, Pipe-fitting Practice, Steam-heating Pipe Systems, Exhaust and Vacuum Systems, Hot-water Heating Systems, Hot-wat Heating Apparatus, Central-station Heating, International Correspondence Schools

1907 "Central Heating System for Fifty-one Detached Buildings," The Heating and Ventilating Magazine 4(4):14-28 (April 1907)
Evans-Almirall hot water system at New York Juvenile Asylum, excellent diagrams.

1908 "Some Results of Steam Heating from a Central Station," by James A. White, Central Station 7:880-884 (May, 1908)
Citizens' Light, Heat & Power Co. of Johnstown, Pa.

1908 "Meter Rate and Flat Rate in District Steam Heating," Heating and Ventilating Magazine 5:20-21 (May 1908)

1908 "The Schott System of Hot Water Heating," by J. C. Hornung, Journal of the Association of Engineering Societies 41(2):33-42 (August, 1908)

1908 "Some Facts and a Few Theories Concerning the Operation of a Central Station Hot Water Heating and Electrical Generating Plant," by J. D. Hoffman, Heating and Ventilating Magazine 5:1-6 (October 1908)

1908 "Test of Underground Conduit Containing Hot Water Piping," by Harry Gillett, Heating and Ventilating Magazine 5:21-22 (October 1908)

1908 "Systems of Central Station Heating," by J.C. Hornung, The Metal Worker, Plumber and Steam Fitter 70(14):54-56 (October 3, 1908)
Holly System thirty years ago, Yaryan System, Schott Hot Water System

1908 "The Schott Systems of Central Station Heating," by J.C. Hornung, Heating and Ventilating Magazine 5(11):19-25 (November 1908)

1908 "Underground Insulation of Steam and Hot Water Pipes," by Harry Gillett, Heating and Ventilating Magazine 5(11):33-34 (November 1908)

1908 Annual Report of the Indiana Engineering Society, Volume 28
Page 142:  Indiana Central Station Heating Plants, January 1, 1908

1909 "Central Station Operation of Steam Plants in Connection with Lighting Company's Service," by S. Morgan Bushnell, Proceedings of the Thirty-Second Convention of the National Electric Light Association 36(2):778-815 (June 1909)

1909 Proceedings of the First Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association (November 1909)

1909 Index to National Electric Light Association Conventions 1-32 1885-1909
Pages 90-92:  Heating and Systems of Distribution

1909 Isaac David Smead (31 Jul 1849 - 6 Sep 1909) grave

1909 "The Advantages to Electric Companies of Central Station Steam Heating," by Charles R. Bishop, The Electrical Age 40:269-273 (October 1909).  Paper read before the New England Branch of the National Electric Light Association's Summer Meeting held at the Wentworth Hotel, Newcastle, New Hampshire, September 9th-10th, 1909.
Page 269:  In the New England States there are 72 cities having a population over 4000, but still in but three of them is there a district-heating system of any magnitude, while Pennsylvania, having 82 cities of over 5000 inhabitants, can claim central station heating plants in at least 69 cities.  Illinois has 51 cities of 5000 population and over, out of which 30 have more or less extensive systems of heat distribution, and in addition, there are heating plants in eight cities in Illinois of less than five thousand population.

1910 "Report of the Review Committee for 1910 on Central Heating Plants," Transactions of the American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers 16:125-127 (January, 1910)

1910 "Toledo Yaryan System," by A. Carle Rogers, Engineering Review 20:58-59 (May 1910)

1910 "Central Station Hot Water Heating," by Byron T. Gifford, Engineering Review 20:59-61 (May 1910)

1910 Proceedings of the Second Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association (May 1910)
Pages 3-12:  List of member systems and Central Station Heating Plants in United States, Not Members of the National District Heating Association

1910 "Decentralized Plants," by R. D. De Wolf, Proceedings of the National Electric Light Association 38:360-372 (May 1910)

1910 "Development and Application of Central Station Heating," by Charles R. Bishop, Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention of the Pennsylvania Electric Association 3:71-85 (September, 1910) | also here |

1910 "District Steam Heating Plants," by Paul Mueller, Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the American Society of Municipal Engineers 17:279-289 (October, 1910) | also here | (great pictures)

1910 Municipal Franchises: Introductory. Pipe and wire franchises, Volume 1, by Delos Franklin Wilcox
Pages 406-497:  Chapter XV. Central Heating Franchises

1910 Memoirs of Lucas County and the City of Toledo: From the Earliest Historical Times Down to the Present, Including a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families, Volume 2, by Harvey Scribner
Pages 230-232: Homer T. Yaryan

1911 Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association (June 1911)

1911 Central Station Heating, by American District Steam Company

1912 "Report of Committee on Steam Heating," Proceedings of the National Electric Light Association 43:20-77 (June 1912)
Some of the results obtained in commercial heating by about 100 companies. Altogether there are now some 250 heating companies in the United States, and the Committee finds that many of these are not earning any direct profit.

1912 Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association (June 1912)

1912 Wisconsin Heating rates. A compilation of rates in force October 1, 1912

1912 Central electric light and power stations and street and electrical railways with summary of the electrical industries, Bureau of the Census (1915)
Pages 152-154:  Central Station Steam and Hot-Water Heating and Supply of Steam for Power
The total number of heating companies in the United States in 1912 was about 250.

1912 Central Station Heating, by Byron Towne Gifford | Second Edition 1918 |

1913 Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association (May 1913)

1913 "Report of Committee on Steam Heating," Proceedings of the National Electric Light Association 48:446 (June 1913)

1913 Seventh Annual Report Report of the Public Service Commission for the First District of the State of New York  | Also here |
Page 523-529:  New York Steam Company

1913 Seventh Annual Report of the Public Service Commission, Second District, for the year ended December 31, 1913, Volume III
Pages 326-328:  Steam Corporations

1913 Thirty Years of New York, 1882-1892: Being a History of Electrical Development in Manhattan and the Bronx, by New York Edison Company
Page 130:  The cellar annex opened at 60 Liberty Street in 1886 did not manufacture its own steam, but contracted for it from the New York Steam Heating Company.

1913 Poor's Manual of Public Utilities, Volume 1

1914 Annual Report of the Public Service Commission of Indiana for the Fiscal Year Ending April 14, 1914
Pages 243-246:  Names of Towns and Corporations, showing kind of service furnished.  Eight towns have heating service

1914 In the Matter of the Hearing on the Motion of the Commission on the Question of Improvements in the Methods Employed by the New York Company in Manufacturing, Distributing and Supplying Steam for Heat or Power and the Property, Equipment or Appliances Used in Connection Therewith, Case No. 1763. P.S.C. 1 N.Y.R 5:265, July 24, 1914
Corporate history of the New York Steam Company

1914 The Heating and Ventilating Magazine 11(8):63 (August 1914)
Deaths. Quimby N. Evans, senior partner of the firm of Evans, Almirall & Company, engineers and contractors for heating, ventilating and power plants, died suddenly July 6. Mr. Evans was one of the pioneers in the heating business in this country, having been in partnership with Frederick Tudor of Boston, under the firm name of F. Tudor & Co., in the '70s. In 1880 he formed a partnership as The Q. N. Evans Co., doing business in Boston and New York. In 1892, Mr. Almirall became associated with him and, a couple of years later, the present co-partnership of Evans, Almiral & Co. was formed. During the past two years Mr. Evans had not been actively engaged in the business, having felt that he could leave it in younger hands. His death was quite unexpected. The business of Evans, Almirall & Co., it is announced, will continue as in the past.

1914 Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association held at Rochester, New York (May, 1914)

1914 "Reminiscence and the Early Day Struggle of Central Station Steam Heating," by John Walsh

1914 Encyclopedia of Exhaustive Steam Heating, by Harrison Safety Boiler Works

1915 Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association (June 1915)

1915 State Public Utilities Commission of Illinois, Part II, Statistical Report
Pages 1139-1140: Table VI Heating Corporations Miscellaneous statistics for the year ended June 30, 1915.

1915 Sweet's Engineering Catalogue
Page 464:  The Ric-Wil Underground Pipe Covering Company
Pages 465-: Tyler Underground Heating System

1915 District Heating: A Brief Exposition of the Development of District Heating and Its Position Among Public Utilities, by S. Morgan Bushnell and Frederick Burton Orr

1915 Report of the Public Service Commission for the First District of the State of New York, Volume 3
Page 624:  The New York Steam Company

1915 Ninth Annual Report of the Public Service Commission, Second District, for the year ended December 31, 1915, Volume III
Pages 318-320:  Steam Corporations

1916 "Central Station Heating in Minnesota," Minnesota Municipalities, 1(1):23 (February, 1916)
Page 24:  Central Station Heating in Minnesota

1916 Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association (May 1916)
Pages 406-410:  District Heating Plants in the United States.  346 Cities in the United States having heating plants.

1916 Tenth Annual Report of the Public Service Commission, Second District, for the year ended December 31, 1916,

1916 Engineering of Power Plants, by Robert H. Fernald and George A. Orrok
Pages 341-353:  Chapter XVII - District Heating

1917 Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association (June 1917)

1917 "District Heating Companies in the United States," Heating and Ventilating Magazine 24(8):47-49 (August, 1917)
There are no less than 401 central station heating plants shown on the map, 351 of which are steam and 50 hot water.
It should be noted that the plants listed include many installations that supply heat to more than one building, but which are not strictly district heating systems.  As it was difficult, in some instances to draw the line, they have all been included. - EDITOR.  {The map referenced was displayed at the 1917 NDHA convention, but not published.]

1917 Report of the Public Service Commission for the First District for the year ending December 31, 1917.
Pages 517-536:  The New York Steam Company

1917 Annual Report of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission
Page 774:  Steam Heating Companies [45 companies]

1917 Central Electric Light and Power Station with Summary of the Electrical Industries, Bureau of the Census  (1920)
Page 23:  Table 8.  6,543 commercial and municipal central electric stations

1918 Report of the Public Service Commission for the First District of the State of New York
Pages 929- : New York Steam Company, receivers appointed August 19, 1918.

1918 Industrial Directory of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Pages 694-695:  Steam Heating Companies [50 companies]

1918 Central Station Heating: Its Economic Features, with Reference to Community Service, by John C. White, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, Technical Paper No. 191

1919 Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association (June 1919)

1919 "Central-station heating in Detroit," by J. H. Walker, Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 41:209-238 (June 1919)

1919 Report of the Public Service Commission for the First District of the State of New York for the year ending December 31, 1919
Pages 929-944:  The New York Steam Company, operated by a receiver.

1919 Annual Reports of the Pubic Service Commission of Indiana 1919-1933

1920 Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association (May, 1920)

1920 Report of the Public Service Commission for the First District of the State of New York for the year ending December 31, 1920
Pages 962-978:  The New York Steam Company, operated by a receiver.

1921 Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association (June, 1921)

1921 "The Heating System for the Girard Estate, Philadelphia," The Heating and Ventilating Magazine 18:43 (June 1921)
Evans-Almirall system supplies 481 houses, stores and apartments on the Girard Estate

1921 "Take Over Defunct Steam Supply Co.," The New York Times, August 15, 1921, Page 19.

1921 In One Man's Life: Being Chapters from the Personal & Business Career of Theodore N. Vail, by Albert Bigelow Paine
Pages 190-194:  The Boston Heating Company

1921 Handbook of the National District Heating Association

1922 History of the Harrisburg Steam Heat and Power Co., by T.M. Zeiders

1922 Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association (June 1922)

1922 Annual Report of the Missouri Public Service Commission
Page 113:  Cities and Towns Supplied with Steam Heating Service

1923 Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association (June 1923)

1924 Proceedings of the Fifteenth Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association (June 1924)

1924 "Present Development of the Central Station Heating Industry," by Fred B. Orr, The Heating and Ventilating Magazine (October 1924)

1924 Moody's Analyses of Investments and Security Rating Books: Public utility securities
Pages 1306-1308:  New York Steam Corporation

1925 "New Utility of Steam on Tap," by M. C. Krarup, Forbes 15:550 (February 1, 1925)

1925 "Giant power : large scale electrical development as a social factor," by Moris Llewllyn Cooke, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 118(1) (March 1925)
Page xii: Introduction by Gifford Pinchot, Governor of Pennsylvania.  Men can use steam power only where it is generated. That is why steam has concentrated vast numbers of people in industrial cities. In a steam-driven civilization the worker must go to the power, but in an electrically-driven civilization the power will be delivered to the worker. Steam makes slums. Electricity can replace them with garden cities.

1925 Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association (June 1925)

1925 The ADSCO System of Atmospheric Steam (Vapor) Heating

1926 Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association (June 1926)

1926 "Municipally Owned Utilities and Services," Municipal Index, pages:95-101 (1926)
13 cities owned municipal heating plants.

1927 "The History of Heating, Ventilation and Lighting," The New York Academy of Medicine 3(2):57-67 (February 1927)

1927 Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association (June 1927)

1927 Central station heating and its relation to the electric utility. Presented at the forty-third annual meeting of the Association of Edison illuminating companies, by John W Meyer

1928 Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association (June 1928)

1928 "Homer T. Yaryan: An Autobiography," American Chemical Industry:  The World War I period: 1912-1922 2:383-385 (1945)
Reprinted from Hercules Mixer, June 1928
Page 383:  My next invention was heating with hot water from a central station.  I built 3 plants in Toledo between the years 1894 and 1896.

1928 Homer Taylor Yaryan (23 Dec 1842 - 18 Sep 1928) grave

1929 Annual report of the Public Service Commission of Oregon
Page 154:  Steam heat companies

1930 Transactions of the Second World Power Conference, Volume IV Thermal Power Plants
Pages 412-449: "The Present Status of District Heating in America," by J. H. Walker and A. R. Mumford

1932 Fifty years of New York steam service; the story of the founding and development of a public utility, by New York Steam Corporation

1932 Handbook of the National District Heating Association
Page 361:  List of hot-water systems as of 1930.

1933 Principles of economical heating, by National District Heating Association

[1935] ADSCO Red Diamond Brand Casing for underground steam and hot water lines.

1937 "Birdsall Holly," The National Cyclopedia of American Biography 26:108-109.  Includes portrait.
At the time of Holly's death the company he had founded was capitalized at $1,000,000, had  a plant covering two city blocks and 500 employees, and had placed his water works system in over 2000 cities and towns in the  United States and Canada.

1940 Directory of Electric Utilities in the United States, by Federal Power Commission | 1941 |
Other services provided by each utility are also noted, including steam and hot water heating.

1943 Jacob Perkins, his inventions, his times, & his contemporaries, by Greville and Dorothy Bathe

1944 "Municipal Central Heating System Serves Whole City," Engineering News Record 133:79 (December 28, 1944)
Virginia, Minnesota

1945 "District Heating is not New, Benjamin Franklin devised a plan," by Colin Johnston Robb, Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 30:177 (July 1945)
The referenced letter by Franklin does not appear in any of Franklin's works and the compilers of Franklin's complete writings could find no reference to it.

1946 District Heating Service in Detroit:  A History of Description of the Central Heating System of The Detroit Edison Company , by Ernest E. Dubry (March 1946)

1948 "Overbrook Steam Heat Company," by V. R. Dunlap, Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 34(1):17-18 (October 1948)
A successful residential heating utility.

1949 William Henry Schott (16 Sep 1867 - 21 Jan 1949) grave

1950 "The Heat's On in New York," Business Week, January 14, 1950, Page 80.

1950 William Kent, Independent:  A Biography, by Elizabeth T. Kent
Page 53:  Kent attended Yale from 1883 to 1887 and at the beginning of his sophomore year moved into a college dormitory.  The Old Brick Row with its four dormitories was heated almost entirely by wood fires in each room, while the newer buildings, Farnam and Durfee, had a central heating plant and no open fire places.

1951 "District Heating with Coal," by Wesley Calef, Illinois Academy of Science Transactions 44:65-72 (1951)

1951 District Heating Service in Detroit:  A History of Description of the Central Heating System of The Detroit Edison Company , by Ernest E. Dubry (June 1951)

1951 "Steam but no kilowatts," Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 37(2):10-12 (October 1951)
Commonwealth Edison Company forms the Medical Center Steam Company to build and operate a new steam plant to serve the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago under a thirty-year contract.

1951 District Heating Handbook, Third Edition, National District Heating Association
Page 9:  In 1949 there were in the United States seventeen hot-water systems and eighteen systems supplying both steam and hot water. 
Pages 423-429:  Chapter 15:  Hot Water for District Heating

1953 Manual of Design Criteria, Military Construction, High Temperature Hot Water Heating Systems, Prepared by Paul L. Geiringer

1955 "The Granddaddy of Central Station Heating," District Heating 41(1):22, 24, 26 (July 1955)
Uncovering an old valve recalls pioneer steam distribution system in Milwaukee.

1955 Juan Antonio Almirall (25 Nov 1870 - 2 Oct 1955) grave

1958 High Temperature Water Systems, by Owen S. Lieberg | 2nd Edition (1963) |

1959 "The History of District Heating," by John F. Collins, Jr., District Heating 44(4):154-161 (April 1959)

1959 "More About Steam," December 6, 1959

1959 "Nation's Largest High Temperature Water installation heats U.S. Air Force Academy," MIT Technology Review 62(2) (December 1959)

1961 "Central Station Heating and Cooling in Hartford," by William T. Jebb, President, Hartford Gas Company, District Heating 47(2): 69-72 (October 1961)

1962 "Public and Private Sellers of Heat in the United States and Canada, Part 1," District Heating 47(4):155-157 (April 1962) | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 |

1962 Principles of economical heating, 6th Edition, by National District Heating Association

1963 High temperature water heating its theory and practice for district and space heating applications, by Paul L. Geiringer
Page 4:   the first high temperature water cascade heating system in the United States was installed in 1950 at Loring Air Force Base, and the first forced circulation heating system was installed at Lockbourne Air Force Base in 1952.
Page 48:  War damages to high temperature water lines
During an aerial attack on the city of Carlsbad, lines carrying 185°C high temperature water and embedded in trenches were damaged at three points, but the supply of heat was interrupted for only eleven hours.
In 1944, an aerial bomb hit the main pipe tunnel of Bayerischen Flugmotorenwerken, in Munich. The roof of the tunnel was ripped away for a distance of 9 m, and the two 225 mm main lines carrying 130°C and 95°C high temperature water were ruptured. The resulting pressure caused the pipe stump to be bent upwards at right angles.  The stricture of the pipes at the bend was so great that when the shut-off valves were closed, the expansion vessel containing 25 cu m of water had not yet drained. The mixture of water and steam did not escape uniformly from the pipes but in pulsations lasting about five minutes each.
An aerial attack in 1944 on the missile installation at Peenemuende ruptured the two main 250-mm lines, which were carried on supports. Because of the shock of escaping water the pipes dropped from the supports. They whipped about for about 40 ft and felled a number of trees in the vicinity. This plant was heavily attacked four times and each time it took only as long to restore the district heating system as it took to repair the electric cables.

1964 "Central Steam Heating Only 1 Holly Invention," Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, October 21, 1964, Page 22.

1964 "Have you heard!," District Heating 50(2):67 (October 1964)
Lockport, New York
The Company has announced plans to close its steam plant and discontinue its steam heating service in Lockport on June 15, 1966.
Mr. John C. Miller, Lockport District Manager, made the announcement in a letter to 159 residential and commercial customers affected, and to officials of the Harrison Radiator Division, which uses steam at its downtown plant.
Mr. Miller said operation of the plant has been unprofitable for years, despite all efforts to reduce costs through changes in operations and facilities.
The Company has filed a petition with the Public Service Commission requesting authority to discontinue the steam plant operation. The Company will furnish steam for two more heating seasons to give customers adequate time to investigate alternate heating sources and make the necessary installation of equipment.
Company specialists have surveyed the heating requirements of the customers involved. They will meet with each customer and if requested, will assist in forming plans for economical conversion to other forms of heating.
The Company has raised its steam rates several times, but the plant is still operating at a loss. The present charge for steam heating is considerably higher than for other types of heating and even another substantial increase in rates would not make retention of the plant feasible, Mr. Miller said.
He listed the following as among the factors which have made the steam heating operation unprofitable: (1) A decreasing number of customers; (2) Changed economic conditions; (3) Rising costs of supplying steam, including maintenance; (4) Decreases in the costs of heating sources. [The shutdown was delayed until June 15, 1969.]

1964 “John Frazee and the New York Custom House,” by Louis Torres, Journal of the Society of Architectual Historians 23(3):143-150 (October 1964)
Page 146-147:  Perkins hot water system installed in 1840 by Hiram A. Norris

1964 Power – from Horses to Atoms:  The Story of the Toledo Edison Company, John K. Davis
Pages 23-24:  Rail-Light's utility competition in Toledo consisted of two small artificial gas companies and one electric company serving what is now the Old West End residential system.
The latter was Homer Yaryan's Toledo Heating and Lighting Company, organized in 1894 to market Mr. Yaryan's system of central station heating for residential customers. He built his first plant at Jefferson Avenue and Michigan Street, and piped hot water through insulated underground ducts to houses in the neighborhood. The idea of getting their homes heated without shoveling coal appealed to the well-to-do residents of that district and soon Yaryan built another plant on Floyd Street near his home. Other plants followed, one on Twenty-Second Street and a large one on Detroit A venue and soon most of the mansions in the West End area were being heated the Yaryan way.
Yaryan used steam boilers and heat exchangers to heat the water in his system, and before long he was producing electricity as a by-product. In the Floyd Street plant he installed an engine-driven generator which exhausted steam into his heat exchangers.  This started out as a toy, and he strung wires to his neighbors' homes and sold them current for $1.00 a month. At that price, his service was very popular and his subsequent plants were designed to produce electricity as well as hot water. Before long he had covered the West End with an electric distribution system.
In 1905, David Robison, Jr., and his two sons decided to move into the utility field once more. They began by acquiring the gas companies—the Toledo Gas Light and Coke Company and its subsidiary, the Citizens Gas Light Company. These they consolidated with the Toledo Heating and Lighting Company after protracted negotiations with the reluctant Mr. Yaryan.
A legend persists in Toledo that at first Mr. Yaryan flatly refused to take part in the merger. Robison, however learned that Yaryan was a believer in astrology and often let the stars guide his business decisions. Mr. Robison is said to have gone to Mr. Yaryan's astrologer and handed her half of a thousand-dollar bill, saying, "The other half is yours if you tell Mr. Yaryan his constellation is in the right quadrant for selling his utility."
It may be only a legend, but the fact is that Mr. Yaryan did sell.

1965 "Nassau Bay Central Heating and Cooling Plant in Houston, Texas," District Heating 51(1):15-17, 33, 40 (July 1965)

1967 "Bellefield Boiler Plant," by Louis M. Susany, District Heating 52(3):91-99, 102 (Winter 1967)

1967 "Modern Gas Sets the Climate at Allegheny Center," by William F. Goffe, Jr., Equitable Gas-Energy Company, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the National District Heating Association 58:29-36 (June, 1967)

1967 "New Total Energy System in Omaha, Nebraska," District Heating 53(2):64-65 (Fall 1967)
Energy Systems, Inc., subsidiary of Northern Natural Gas Company

1968 "First Privately-Owned, Dual-Purpose Nuclear Plant to be Built near Midland, Michigan by Consumers Power Company," District Heating 53(3):109-110 (Winter 1968)
Nuclear CHP plant to provide steam to Dow Chemical.  The nuclear plant did not turn out well, and was replaced with a large gas-fired plant.  See Midland Cogeneration Venture.

1968 "Underground Social Capital," by Arthur H. Cole, The Business History Review 42(4):482-492 (Winter 1968)

1968 "New Central Plant for Heating and Cooling Texas Medical Center, Inc. in Houston," District Heating 54(1):32 (Summer 1968)
Houston Natural Gas Corporation

1970 "New Heating-Cooling System being constructed in Oklahoma," District Heating 55(3):17 (Winter 1970)
Oklahoma City, Thermal Systems, Inc. subsidiary of Oklahoma Natural Gas Company

1971 "District Heating-Cooling at Century City in Los Angeles", by Donald F. Buckner, District Heating 56(3):23-25 (Winter, 1971)

1971 "New Central Heating-Cooling Plant to Serve Downtown Minneapolis, Minn.," District Heating 57(1):13 (Summer 1971)

1971 "The Infancy of Central Heating in the United States: 1803-1845," by Benjamin L. Walbert, III, Bulletin of the Association for Preservation Technology 3(4):76-88 (1971)

1972 "Berrigan Trial 'Looks' at Steam System," Democrat and Chronicle, March 21, 1972, Page 10A.
Conspiracy to blow up the Washington D.C. steam heating system.

1972 "New District Heating-Cooling Plant in Nashville, Tennessee," District Heating 58(2):20-23 (Fall 1972)
Nashville Thermal Transfer Corporation, refuse-fired plant.

1973 "Feeling the Chill: Many Steam-Heat Companies Bemoan Loss of Customers, New Air Standards," The Wall Street Journal, January 10, 1973, Page 34.

1973 "A Case in Point:  Many Steam-Heat Companies Bemoan Loss of Customers, New Air Standards," District Heating 58(3):6-7 (January-February 1973)
Reprint of the above article from the Wall Street Journal.

1974 "The Story of Franklin Station Rochester, Minn.," by William D. Latham, District Heating 59(3):20-22 (January-February, 1974)

1976 Building Early America: contributions toward the history of a great industry, edited by Charles E. Peterson
Pages 165-185: "An Historical Sketch of Central Heating: 1800-1860," by Eugene S. Ferguson

1977 "District Energy Suppliers in the United States and Canada," District Heating 62(3):6-8 (January-February-March 1977)

1977 "Con Ed's Steam System An Endangered Species," by Anthony J. Parisi, The New York Times, December 27, 1977, Pages 57, 59.

1977 That Man Haupt: A Biography of Herman Haupt, by James A. Ward
Page 213:  During 1879, Haupt also examined a unique heating system developed by the Holly Steam Combination Company of Lockport, New York.  Unfortunately, nobody reaped large benefits from the system, for it was never introduced.

1978 "Central Heating and Forced Ventilation: Origins and Effects on Architectural Design," by Robert Bruegmann, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 37(3):143-160 (October 1978)

1978 "The Little Engine That Scares Con Ed," by Tom Alexander, Fortune 98(13):80-84 (December 31, 1978)
Thomas R. Casten, general manager of Cummins Cogeneration.  Casten's interest in co-generation was roused after he was appointed director of corporate strategy for Cummins Engine in 1974.

1979 "Alexandroffsky," Maryland Magazine 12(2):26-31 (Winter 1979))
Page 29:  Amidst the elegance, Thomas Winans' flair for the experimental was evident.  One-inch holes perforating the floor allowed steam to rise from hot water pipes fitted across the basement ceiling below, providing heat for the room. After all, Alexandroffsky was the first house in Baltimore to enjoy a central heating system.  A special building had been constructed in the early 1850's to house the Haywood-Bartlett boiler for it. In a cold winter, as much as 1/3-ton of coal was burned daily to heat most of the twenty buildings on the estate.  Gaslight fixtures, so designed by Winans as to prohibit noxious fumes from permeating the house, glowed warmly from many of the main house's walls.

1979 "Score in Minnesota: 14 operating, 15 closed," by Karen Anderson and Mary Williams, Public Power 37(5):50-52 (September 1979)

1979 "District Heating for Piqua, Ohio" by David W. Wade, District Heating 65(2):12-19 (October-November-December 1979)

1979 District Heating: Thermal Generation and Distribution, by C. Mackenzie-Kennedy (1979)

1980 "Boise Geothermal District Heating, 1892-1982," Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International District Heating Association 71:n.p. (June 1980)
Part I, Institutional Planning
Part II, Technical Planning

1980 "Update on Nashville Thermal," by Milton E. Kirkpatrick, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International District Heating Association 71:(14)1-23 (June 1980)

1980 Dual Use Energy Systems - District Heating Survey, July 1980

1980 Cogeneration: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Energy Development and Applications of the Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, Ninety-sixth Congress, Second Session, July 22, 23, 1980, Volume 2
Page 168:  Background and resume of Thomas R. Casten.

1981 Potential for District Heating: An Historical Overview, by Martin A. Broders

1981 "Pre-Insulated Piping - The State of the Art 1981," by Larry Stonitch, Rovanco, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International District Heating Association 72:(15)1-9 (June 1981)
Piping in Europe and the United States, European District Heating Boards and the need for a U.S. Board

1981 "Management Review of the Erie Steam Heat System," Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International District Heating Association 72:(24)1-42 (June 1981)

1981 "Duluth District Heating," by Harvey E. Sandstrom, District Heating 67(2):16-36 (Fourth Quarter 1981)

1981 Cogeneration and District Heating: An Energy-efficiency Partnership, by Roy Meador

1982 "Willmar, Minnesota Lays District Heating Pipe," District Heating 68(1):20-21 (3rd Quarter 1982)

1983 "Willmar District Heating Start-up," District Heating 68(4):31-33 (2nd Quarter 1983)

1983 "Hot-water district heating works well for Willmar, Minn," Public Power 41(9):66-68 (July August 1983)
Page 68:  The system was filled and put into immediate service during the last week of September 1982.

1983 District Heating Handbook, Fourth Edition, International District Heating Association  | also available from IDEA |

1983 "The U.S. District Heating Industry: A Case Study of Corporate Strategy and Public Utility Regulation," by Robert Loube, Doctoral Dissertation in Economics, Michigan State University | pdf |

1984 "Development of District Heating in Aitkin, Minnesota," District Heating 69(3):36-37 (1st Quarter 1984)

1984 "Geothermal District Heating Projects (1)," by Paul J. Lienau, District Heating 70(1):28-35 (3rd Quarter 1984)
Boise, Elko, Klamath Falls

1984 "Geothermal District Heating Projects (2)," by Paul J. Lienau, District Heating 70(2):33-36 (4th Quarter 1984)
Pagosa Springs, Philip, San Bernardino, Susanville

1985 "Construction of an Economic District Heating System in Jamestown, New York," by Mayor Steven B. Carson, James Gronquist, Douglas V. Champ of The City of Jamestown, NY; Dr. Fred V. Stmisa of The New York Energy Research and Development Authority; Dr. Ishai Oliker, William R. Buffa, of Bums and Roe, Inc., District Heating, 70(3):4-15 (1st Quarter 1985)

1985 Central Heating Plants, by Naval Facilities Engineering Command, April 1985

1985 "Electricity and Steam Heat: Co-generation in Flagstaff, 1920-1966," by Joyce Griffen, The Journal of Arizona History 26(2):172-202 (Summer 1985)

1985 "District Heating in Minnesota," by Tom Hughes, Minnesota Cities 70(12):8,9 (December 1985)

1985 District Heating and Cooling in the United States, Prospects and Issues

1985 Hydronic System Design and Operation:  A guide to heating and cooling with water, by Erwin G. Hansen
Pages 418-419:  Prall's promotion of his HTW system, in spite of violent opposition in the trade papers (see Plumber and Sanitary Engineer, October 15, 1880), led to the founding of The National Superheated Water Company in New York and the construction of the first large-scale HTW district heating system in Boston.
The plant of the Boston Heating Company was located off Atlantic Avenue and consisted of six boilers with a common economizer. The district covered a considerable area bounded by Atlantic Avenue, Broad Street, State Street, Washington Street, Milk Street, Devonshire Street, and Summer Street. Within this area, an interconnected grid system was constructed consisting of 4-in (100-mm) HTW supply mains and 8-in (200-mm) gravity return mains. It was an excellently constructed system, costing approximately $1.5 million, and the details of construction, as described in the April 28 through May 26, 1888 issues of the Engineering and Building Record, and in the Transactions of American Institute of Mining in the same year, make interesting reading even today.
The plant was completed and started selling heat in January 1888. It soon had 70 customers signed up, all of whom expressed complete satisfaction with the service rendered to them. Nevertheless on November 9, 1889, that is, after less than 2 years of operation, the plant and system shut down and went out of business. The cause of the failure was the complete disintegration of the gravity return line through corrosion.  While a steam system can be operated without condensate return at an increase in the fuel consumption and fuel cost of approximately 12 percent, the Prall system without recovery of the spent water incurred a cost increase of 60 percent due to fuel consumption. It was thus no longer economically viable.
At the time the causes of corrosion were not understood, and it was thought that the continuously changing return temperature was at the origin of the failure. Now, of course, we know that the culprit was the atmospheric oxygen picked up in the open return. One lesson to be learned from the Perkins and Prall systems is that a truly closed HTW system lasts indefinitely, whereas an open system can disintegrate in almost no time at all.

1986 "Cogeneration and DHC in Trenton," by Tom Casten and Kevin Brown, Cogeneration Development Corporation, District Heating and Cooling 71(3):7-12, 14, 16-17 (First Quarter 1986)

1986 "Hartford - A Modern DHC System," by Anthony C. Mirabella, District Heating and Cooling, 72(2):11-13 (4th Quarter 1986)
Capital District Area Heating & Cooling System

1987 "District heating decisions in Iowa- non-decision decision making," Robert I. Wessel, Iowa State Journal of Research 62(1):63-73 (August 1987)
Page 68:  District heating in Perry was terminated due to boiler inefficiency and deterioration, a constant electrolysis problem with the hot water pipes, and, according to one source, one year of spotty maintenance on the delivery system. According to the plant engineer, a decision not to replace the boiler system in 1962 determined that the plant would ultimately be shut down. By 1976 or 1977 the turbine at the Iowa Electric plant in Perry had run its course as a useful mechanism, and the boiler was used only for heating. Electricity was obtained through the Iowa Electric grid. The system with approximately 165 customers still using it was closed on June 14, 1981.

1987 "Development of District Heating in Buffalo, New York," by James D. Griffin, Charles E. Rosennow, John C. Friedline, Jr., Fred V. Strnisa, I. Oliver, District Heating and Cooling 72(4):11-15 (Second Quarter 1987)

1987 "DHC and Diplomacy:  How One U.S. Military Village Linked Up With Its German Neighbor," District Heating and Cooling, 72(4):19-25 (2nd Quarter 1987)

1987 "Municipal Waste Fuel District Heating and Cooling System Nashville, Tennessee," by John Wimberly and Glenn A. Swinehart, District Heating and Cooling, 72(4):35-38 (2nd Quarter 1987)

1988 A Century of Planning and Construction at the University of Northern Colorado, by Morris A. Pierce Masters' Thesis in History, University of Northern Colorado
Heat and Light for the University of Northern Colorado

1988 An energy policy for Pennsylvania
Pages 145-149:  Commercial District Heating Systems in Pennsylvania

1989 "Century City:  A City Within the City of Los Angeles," District Heating and Cooling 75(1):6-11 (3d Quarter 1989)

1991 "Trigeneration Brings Cost & Energy Savings to Nassau County," by Tom Casten and Claudette Greene, District Heating and Cooling 76(4):4-7, 9-11, 13-15 (Second Quarter 1991)

1991 High Temperature Water Heating Systems, Departments of the Army and Air Force (December 1991)

1992 National Census of District Heating, Cooling and Cogeneration (July 1993)

1993 "Heating Methods and Their Impact on Soane's Work: Lincoln's Inn Fields and Dulwich Picture Gallery," by Todd Willmert, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 52(1):26-58 (March 1993)

1993 "The introduction of direct pressure water supply, cogeneration, and district heating in urban and institutional communities, 1863-1882," by Morris A. Pierce, Ph.D. Dissertation in History, University of Rochester

1993 "Steam Heat and Power in Philadelphia," by Morris A. Pierce

1993 "Boston Heating Company," by Morris A. Pierce

1994 "Competition and Cooperation:  The Growth of District Heating and Cooling, 1882-1917," by Morris A. Pierce, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International District Heating and Cooling Association 85:19-29 (June 1994)

1994 "San Bernardino Capitalizes on Natural Heat," by Kevin Fisher and Brett Bailey, District Heating and Cooling 79(3):43-46 (First Quarter 1994)

1994 Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Structures Report, July 1, 1994
Page 103-107:  Heating, by David G. Cornelius

1994 "Outsourcing Heating and Cooling:  In Omaha it's the wave of the past," District Heating and Cooling 79(4):12-21 (Second Quarter 1994)

1994 "Thermal Ventures Pursues Growth Plans in San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Youngstown," District Energy 80(2):10-13 (Fourth Quarter 1994)

1994 "District Heating and Massachusetts General Hospital - A Tale of Two Cities," by A. Seth, District Energy 80(2):23-26 (Fourth Quarter 1994)

1995 "A History of Cogeneration Before PURPA," by Morris A. Pierce, ASHRAE journal 37(5):53-60 (May 1995) | pdf |

1995 "The road to Lockport: Historical background of district heating and cooling," by Morris A. Pierce,  ASHRAE transactions 101:885-892, Part 1; PB: 1517 | pdf |
The idea of district heating can be traced back to Roman hypocausts, some of which warmed multiple buildings. They were reintroduced into Europe during the Renaissance and slowly evolved into modern hot air, hot water, and steam heating systems. Major heating milestones are summarized, along with requirements to conserve fuel and abate smoke. Early district-heating proposals in London (1623 and 1820s), Pennsylvania (1869), Warsaw and Zuerich (1872) are discussed, as are steam systems actually installed at the US Naval Academy (1853), the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, and a hot water cogeneration system at the Banstead Downs Asylum in England (1876). Birdsill Holly--a Lockport, New York, inventor--installed the first successful commercial district heating system there in 1877. By 1890, more than 50 were installed, many of which are still operating today. District cooling began shortly after that, with successful introduction of systems using brine and ammonia.

1995 "Controlling urban climates: The need for local heat supply planning," by Morris A. Pierce, Journal of Urban Technology 2(3): (1995)

1995 "Cogeneration, District Heating and District Cooling:  A Century of District Energy in Indianapolis," by Morris A. Pierce, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International District Energy Association 86:1-17 (June 1995)

1995 The Evolution of Heat, Light, and Power Systems at the U.S. Naval Academy:  1845-1995, by Morris A. Pierce, Presented at the Twelfth Naval History Symposium, 26-27 October 1995.

1996 "Heat-supply planning: A practice worth importing," by Morris A. Pierce, District Energy 81(4):4 (Second Quarter 1996) 

1996 "State and local heat supply planning:  Insurance for a warm future," by Morris A. Pierce, ASHRAE transactions v 102, n 1, p 801-808, | pdf |

1997 "Straightening the Calf Path of Fuel Conversion," by Thomas R. Casten President and Chief Executive Officer Trigen Energy Corporation, Distributed Generation & Alternative Energy Journal 12(2):5-8 (March 1997)

1998 Turning off the heat: why America must double energy efficiency to save money and reduce global warming, by Thomas R Casten
Page 5:  When appropriately sized generating plants are built near users of heat, the normally wasted heat from electric generation can be recovered and sold, thus saving money and avoiding burning more fuel to make heat. The process is called "combined heat and power" (CHP). It is not a new idea and was in fact utilized by Thomas Edison's very first commercial electric-generating plant on Pearl Street in Manhattan in 1881.
Page 45:  The first commercial power plant was on Pearl Street in the Wall Street area of Manhattan, New York. Edison recovered the steam left over from this early generator and piped it to nearby buildings to sell for heat in the winter. This generated more revenue and lowered Edison's net cost of making electricity. This combination of heat and power generation, or CHP, was the early pattern for all electricity generation and led to the development of district steam systems in most major cities. [The exhaust steam from the Pearl Street station was not sold for heat but exhausted into the atmosphere. See 1904 reference above.]

1999 "Myths of Electric Regulation: Looking at the Future of Energy through Entrepreneurial Eyes," by Thomas R. Casten, The Electricity Journal 12(9):45-53 (November 1999)

2003 High Temperature Water Heating Systems (May 2003)

2003 "Skyscrapers and District Heating, an inter-related History 1876-1933," by Emmanuelle Gallo, Construction History 19:87-106 (2003)

2001 District Energy Trends, Issues, and Opportunities: The Role of the World Bank, by Carolyn Gochenour

2006 Evaluation of European District Heating Systems for Application to Army Installations in the United States, July 2006

2008 U.S. geothermal district heating : barriers and enablers, by Hildigunnur H Thorsteinsson, MIT Masters Thesis

2012 "High-Temperature Hot Water District Heating: A Brief History," by Morris A. Pierce, District Energy  (Fourth Quarter 2012)
Page 17:  The first high-temperature hot water district heating system was patented by the American inventor Angier March Perkins in 1831 and was widely used in Britain throughout the 19th century; some systems remained in service into the 1930s. The Perkins system used small-bore (less than 1-inch) piping that distributed hot water at 300-600 degrees Fahrenheit and 300-3,000 psig. Although none of these systems is known to have been used to heat multiple buildings, Perkins said in 1836 that he could “heat a whole parish from one fire.”
After Birdsill Holly introduced commercial district steam heating in 1877, several competitors appeared including William Prall, who in 1878 patented a “superheated” water system that could deliver heat over a much longer distance than the low-pressure steam networks then in use. His National Superheated Water Co. developed systems that distributed hot water at 400 F to individual buildings, which was flashed into steam for heating and to power engines. The condensate was then metered and returned to the plant through a low-pressure condensate return line.
Small Prall systems were built in New York and Washington, D.C., before he convinced Bell Telephone founder Theodore Newton Vail to invest in a much larger system to serve the financial district in Boston, which was being rebuilt after a large fire in 1872. Vail’s Boston Heating Co. began construction in 1886 and started serving 70 customers in January 1888. In November 1889 the system was shut down and went out of business due to the complete disintegration of the open return lines from atmospheric oxygen corrosion. Unlike a district steam system that can operate reasonably well without the return condensate, the Prall network was not economically viable without it. The abandoned hot water pipes were (and may still be) used as conduits for telephone wires.
German engineers in the 1920s resurrected high-temperature hot water systems, recognizing as Perkins did that a closed system was not subject to corrosion. Large high-temperature hot water systems were installed in many German industrial facilities prior to World War II, and a few were installed in American factories in the 1930s. The German systems proved to be resistant to damage from aerial bombs and could be quickly repaired, which the U.S. Air Force discovered in its survey of wartime damage. In 1947 a high-temperature hot water system operating at around 400 F was installed at the new Loring Air Force Base in Maine. Within 10 years, more than 30 similar systems were installed at other air bases, while the U.S. Navy also adopted the technology for many of its facilities. Rutgers and Brigham Young universities installed similar systems in the 1950s, with many more installed on other campuses and military bases in later years.
One notable installation was the high-temperature district  heating network at the new U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, which began service in 1957. This system operates at 454 F and 440 psia – the highest known temperature and pressure to have been used on such a system.

2016 Mariemont Town Crier 75th Anniversary Edition
Page 21-22:  Mariemont's Power Plant, by Rex Bevis

2017 "Design of a High-Temperature-Hot-Water-Plant Expansion," by Eric Chrencik, HPACEngineering, January 12, 2017
This article discusses a recently completed expansion of a high-temperature-hot-water (HTHW) plant at George Mason University.  The university’s HTHW system typically operated at 360°F and supplied water with a 100°F temperature differential (260°F return temperature). The system-pressure setpoint was approximately 220 psig.

2018 The Finest Building in America: The New York Crystal Palace, 1853-1858, by Edwin G. Burrows
Page 119:  Flanking it, rigged so as to power machines in the Arcade, stood two 60-horsepower engines connected by underground pipes to boilers located across 42nd Street.

2023 District Heating in Rochester

Organizations and Publications
The Holly District Steam Engineers held meetings in 1886 (Lockport), 1887 (Williamsport), 1888 (Springfield) and 1889 (Wilkes-Barre).  A fifth meeting was schedules for Syracuse in June 1890 but was apparently never held.  A proceedings was published for the 1887 meeting, but no copy of this has been found.

The Proceedings of the National Electric Light Association was published from 1885 to 1932 and was the principal venue for district heating conversations until the formation of the National District Heating Association in 1909.

The National District Heating Association was founded in 1909 and published proceedings of their annual conventions every year, except 1918 when no convention was held.  Their name was changed to the International District Heating Association in 1978, the International District Heating and Cooling Association in 1984 and the International District Energy Association in 1994.  They began publishing a quarterly magazine, The Bulletin of the National District Association in 1915.  The name of the Bulletin was changed to District Heating in 1953, to District Heating and Cooling in 1985 and to District Energy in 1995 to reflect changes in the name of the association.

Issues of District Energy from Fourth Quarter 2005 to the present can be found on line at:  https://www.districtenergy-digital.org/districtenergy/library/

The ADSCO Advocate was published by the American District Steam Corporation starting in 1927.  The issues shown below are the only ones available. If any other issues are available I would be happy to scan and return them.

Moody's Public Utilities Manual, Poor's Public Utilities Manual, Fitch Bond Report

Links:  | International District Energy Association | Euroheat & Power | Danish Board of District Heating | District Heating (Wikipedia) | List of Large District Heating Systems (Wikipedia) |

References about Foreign District Heating
1334 Geothermal district heating introduced in the village of Chaudes-Aigues in the Canal region of France.  This system is still operating.

1623 Cornelius Drebbel proposes a district heating system for London (see 1922, 1958 and 1961 references below)

1818 "On the new application of steam for heating houses, offices, and workshops, and for other purposes," The Monthly Magazine 45(3):193-196 (April 1818)
Page 196:  Steam will heat several small houses, from a common boiler, at a joint expense, not exceeding six-pence per day, or a penny per day per house.

1818 On Conducting Air by Forced Ventilation: And Regulating the Temperature in Dwellings, with a Description of the Application of the Principles ... and a Short Account of Different Patent Apparatus for Warming and Cooling Air and Liquids, by Jean-Frédéric de Chabannes (marquis de Curton)

1818 Appendix to the Marquis de Chabanne's Publication, on Conducting Air by Forced Ventilation, and Equalizing the Temperature of Dwellings;: Published in 1818. : Being a Continuation of the Description of the Patent Apparatus for Warming and Cooling Air and Liquid, by Jean-Frédéric de Chabannes (marquis de Curton)

1824 Principles of Warming and Ventilating Public Buildings: Dwelling Houses, Manufactories, Hospitals, Hot-houses, Conservatories, &c.; and of Constructing Fire-places, Boilers, Steam Apparatus, Grates, and Drying Rooms; with Illustrations Experimental, Scientific, and Practical by Thomas Tredgold | Second Edition |

1828 Essai sur Chaudes-Aigues, département du Cantal: analyse chimique des eaux minérales-thermales de cette ville, by Alphonse Chevallier

1834 Suggestions for the Architectural Improvement of the Western part of London, by Sydney Smirke
Page 62:   Mr. Brunel has suggested to the author the practicability of laying on heat to a long range of these dwellings from one common source; a contrivance which, if perfected, would be of inestimable importance in London, where the high price of fuel is so great a burthen upon the poor.

1836 Mechanics' Magazine, and Journal of the Mechanics' Institute 7(6):323 (June 1836)
Mr. Perkins says he can heat a whole parish with one fire.

1842 Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain, by Edwin Chadwick
Page 254:  A few year since a gentleman, observing some ditches in London, in the neighborhood of the City-road, smoking with clean hot water running away from the steam-engine of a manufactory, directed attention to the waste, and suggested the expediency of using that water to supply public warm or tepid water baths.  After a time the suggestion was acted upon as a private speculation, and large swimming-baths were constructed.

1851 "Great Exhibition Building: The Boiler-House," The Illustrated London News, Supplement 18:1 (April 11, 1851)
As a temporary building the Crystal Palace was not heated but included an external boiler plant to provide steam for the exhibits in the Moving Machinery Hall.

Aeronautic view of the Palace of Industry for all Nations, from Kensington Gardens, engraved by the artist, pub. 1851

1863 A 1984 book states that Wilhelm Siemens advocated for district heating in Birmington, but the only reference found refers to his proposal for a city-wide manufactured gas network.  See Wilhelm Siemens, by William Pole (1890), page 306

1877  "A New Mode of Circulating Hot Water through very Large Buildings, and a Upon a New Mode of Softening Water, as carried out at the new lunatic asylum (the third) for the county of
Middlesex, situated on Banstead Downs, in Surrey," by Frederick J. Bramwell.  Read before the Mechanical Science Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting at Plymouth in August 1877, but not published in the meeting transactions.. A summary of the paper can be found in the The Sanitary Record 7:162 (September 7, 1877).

Banstead Downs Asylum

1878 "Heating a Town by Steam from a Common Centre," by George Maw, The Times (London, England), May 25, 1878, Page 6.
A paragraph appeared in The Times a few weeks ago referring to the experimental heating of the houses of this city by steam laid on from a common centre of supply, and having today, through the courtesy of Mr. Everett, the Manager of the Holly Steam Combination Company, an opportunity of examining the works in operations, I desire to communicate the information I have received through the columns of The Times, as I am convinced that this novel application of steam is destined in a few years to completely revolutionize the heating of buildings in towns, and that heat can be laid on and supplied like gas from a common centre, within almost any reasonable distance, and at a cost much below that of any system of domestic heating in use.

1880 "The Holly System of Steam Heating," Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 59:430-431 (1880)
Reprinted from the Scientific American, August 23, 1879, p. 114
Page 430:  It may be of interest here to record, that a similar project for the supply of steam power was submitted in 1858 to Sir William Fairbairn, who expressed in a letter to a friend his views regarding it as follows:- "I should have considerable misgivings about [the] project of a General Steam Supply company for towns. In my practice I have always found the transmission of power by steam more expensive than by shafting or other means adopted for that purpose. When the friction of the pipes, loss of heat by radiation, &c., are considered, I think it will be more expensive in conveying steam to an engine at a distance than taking the engine to the steam. In some cases. it is true, if the mountain won't go to Mahomet, Mahomet must go to the mountain; but I have always found it eligible to bring the steam generator as close to the moving power, or the spot where the steam is used, as possible. Impressed with these views, I fear I cannot look upon this project as one likely to succeed; and before any attempt of that kind is made I would strongly advise a series of experiments to be instituted, in order to show the ratio of the loss of heat as the distance of transmission is increased, and by careful comparison with existing methods to determine how far it would be expedient to enter upon the undertaking.”—A. B.

1922 Zentralisieren von heizungsbetrieben und wärmelieferung für sonstigen hausbedarf in ortschaften und städten [Centralisation of heat supplied in suburbs and towns], by Wilhelm Züblin.
He first thought of district heating during the period 1868 to 1872, when he was in Warsaw and involved with the manufacture of steam engines and he considered that the exhaust steam could be used for heating. He went to Sulzer Bros. in Winterthur, Switzerland, in 1872 and initiated studies for district heating in four suburbs of Zurich with the cooperation of the Municipality's chief engineer.

1922 Cornelis Drebbel en zijne tijdgenooten, by Prof. Dr. F. M. Jaeger (1922)
Pages 123-135: Cornelius Drebbel French manuscript from N. C. F. de Peiresc, September 1624 (English Translation)

1924 Central and District Heating: Possibilities of Application in Canada, by Frank Aubrey Combe

1926 "District Heating in Germany," by Abraham Margolis, Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association 17:154-157 (June 1926)

1928 Mårten Triewald's Short description of the atmospheric engine: published at Stockholm, 1734  

1929 "A Letter from England," by W. Nelson Haden, Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association 20:294 (June 1929)

1930 "District heating in Paris," by Philippe L. Schereschewsky, Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 16(1):4-12 (October 1930)

1932 "District Heating Practices in Europe," by Arthur J. Slade, Sales Manager, American District Steam Co.,  Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association 23:173-176 (June 1932)

1934 "European Hot Water Heating Practice," by Fred L. Witsell, Toledo Edison Company,  Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association 25:154-159 (June 1934)

1934 "District Heating in Paris" by Philippe L. Schereschewsky, Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 20(1):10-11 (October 1934)

1935 "The Present Status and Future of Hot Water Distribution," by Abraham Margolis,  Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association 26:171-182 (June 1935)

1935 "Preliminary Outline of Study of Proposed Heating and Industrial District Steam System for Part of Belfast, Ireland," by Henry R. Ayton, Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 21(1):27-28 (October 1935)

1937 "The System of Urban Heating in Paris," Philippe L. Schereschewsky, Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 22(2):53-56 (January 1937)

1937 "Simon Goodrich and his Work as an Engineer Compiled from his Journals and Memoranda," by Ernest Alfred Forward, Transactions of the Newcomen Society 18:1-27 (1937)
Page 15:  About this time Sir Samuel Bentham had been having his house fitted up for steam heating and Goodrich records that the apparatus was put to work on August 9th, 1810.

1941 "Early Application of Engineering to the Warming of Buildings," by A. F. Dufton, Transactions of the Newcomen Society 21:99-111 (1940-1941)

1942 "District Heating in the U.S.S.R.," Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 28(1):8 (October 1942)
Records of 1936 show that there were in Russia at that time combination district heating and power plants in Moscow, Leningrad, Saratov, Kuibyshev, Ivanovo, Yaroslavl, Pskov, Gorki, Kharkov, Rostov-on-Don and in a number of other cities. Of these, only Kharkov and Rostov have fallen in the hands of the German armies.

1943 "District Heating in Paris," by Philippe L. Schereschewsky, Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the National District Heating Association 34:20-23 (June, 1943)

1944 "The Growth of District Heating in Russia and Germany," by Abraham E. Margolis, Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 29(3):119-123 (April 1944)

1944 Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 30(1):18 (October 1944)
The insulated pipe line which carried 65 gallons of water per second from the hot springs 10 miles away to Reykjavik, capital of Iceland, to heat that city, supplied the houses with water which is between 203 and 212 F and loses only 9F enroute, according to information in the Journal of the British Institution of Heating and Ventilating Engineers for May and June.

1945 "The New Twenty-Eight Inch Three Hundred Pound Steam Main of the Paris, France, District Heating System," by Philippe L. Schereschewsky, Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 30(3):113-119 (April 1945)

1946 "News," Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 31(3):160 (April 1946)
Washington, D. C. Philippe Schereschewsky, Director of the Cie Parisienne de Chauffage Urbain, who has been in this city since before the war, returned to France on a mission in December.
Deaths of European Members of NDHA Reported
A letter from his firm, recently received at Headquarters, informs us of the death in June 1945 of Mr. Hugo Theorell, of Stockholm, Sweden. Mr. Theorell, a well-known consulting engineer, joined NDHA in 1929. During most of the war it was impossible to communicate with Sweden, so we had not previously learned of his regrettable death.
Word has also reached Headquarters of the death in a boiler explosion during the war of F. Montois, Chief Engineer of the Society Electricite de la Seine, Paris, France. Mr. Montois joined NDHA in 1938.

1946 "District Heating in the Plans for the Rebuilding of the Netherlands," by W. Beuker, Jr., Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the National District Heating Association 37:76-79 (June 1946)

1946 "The Status of District Heating in Czechoslovakia," by Julius Mikula, Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 31(4):189-192 (July 1946)
Brno, Prague, Usti, Kolin, Pardubice, Nachod, Karlovy Vary

1947 "Continental Practice," by Abraham Margolis, Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 33(1):13 (October 1947)

1948 "District Heating in Great Britain," Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 33(2):55-58 (January 1948)
Urmston, Salisbury, Bonnyrigg, Bilston, Brynmawr, Dagenham, Hounslow West, Luton, Twickenham, Pimlico, Wythenshawe

1948 "American and European Viewpoints on the Combined Operation of Electric and Steam Service," by Ward F. Davidson, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the National District Heating Association 39:182-199 (May 1948)
Summary of reports on Rotterdam, Paris and Copenhagen from the Fuel Economy Conference of the World Power Conference held in The Hague in September, 1947.

1948 "The AB Autometer-Hortenau System," Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 34(1):7-8 (October 1948)
An electric heat-quantity meter for hot water from Sweden.

1948 "M. Gaston Gourdeau:  Father of District Heating in France," Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 34(1):11 (October 1948)

1948 "District Heating in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland," by Arthur Nielsen, Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 34(1):15-16 (October 1948)

1949 "District Heating in Denmark," by N. Chr. Geertsen, Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 34:(2):67-71 (January 1949)
Includes table of statistics on 12 systems in Denmark.

1949 "District Heating in Sweden," by Per Alsen, Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 34(3):111-115 (April 1949)

1949 "Progress of District Heating in Europe," Arthur S. Griswold, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the National District Heating Association 40:229-235 (May 1949)

1950 "Tinsley BTU Meter," Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 35(2):70-71 (January 1950)
Manufactured in London.

1951 "Pimlico District Heating Scheme," Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 37(2):14 (October 1951)

1951 District Heating Handbook, Third Edition, National District Heating Association
Pages 24-29:  District Heating Outside the United States.  Iceland; Russia; Germany; Great Britain; France; Czechoslovakia; Vatican City is the only City in Europe heated entirely by district steam.  Table II on page 26 lists 70 district heating systems in Europe, and indicates that Vatican City has a hot water system.
Pages 423-429:  Chapter 15:  Hot Water for District Heating

1952 "Low-Pressure Hot-Water Distribution in District Heating," by Abraham Margolis, Bulletin of the National District Heating Association 37(2):67 (January 1952)

1955 "Recent Developments of District Heating in Paris," M. Salmon-Legagneur, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the National District Heating Association 46:70-78 (May 1955)

1955 "District Heating Applied to Vine-Culture in Belgium," by G. Firket, District Heating 41(2):57 (October 1955)

1958 "Cornelis Drebbel:  A Neglected Genius of Seventeenth Century Technology," by Lawrence Ernest Harris, Transactions of the Newcomen Society 31:195-204 (1957-1959)
Page 202:  Turning from the practical to what might be termed the fantastic side of Drebbel, there is a further description in the writings of de Peiresc in 1624 of a scheme which, he says, Drebbel had put forward to Charles, Prince of Wales (Henry, his elder brother, had died in 1612). This was a scheme by which heat would be distributed to the houses of London in a manner similar to that by which water was so distributed. The latter was a reference to the newly-completed New River Scheme. According to de Peiresc, reporting what had been told him by Abraham Kuffler, Drebbel proposed to have a perpetual source of heat on a small hill in the neighbourhood of London. Here he would instal instruments to collect the rays of the sun and use them to set on fire a special substance which would burn and glow without being consumed. The instruments to collect the rays of the sun were to comprise sets of concave and convex mirrors; the heat, presumably, would be conveyed to London in pipes in the form of hot water. The whole scheme sounds somewhat impracticable, but Archimedes was credited with setting the Roman ships on fire by burning glasses or concave mirrors, and Drebbel may have had this in mind. What the indestructible substance may have been it is impossible to say.  It may have been an exaggeration in the minds of Kuffler and de Peiresc, but, whatever were the details of the proposal, it can be claimed as the first potential district heating scheme for the city of London. Unfortunately Drebbel required £20,000 for the scheme and this was not forthcoming.

1959 "District Heating in Copenhagen, Denmark," by A. K. Bak and Johannes Hansen, District Heating 44(4):143-147 (April 1959)

1959 "District Heating in Copenhagen, Denmark," by A. K. Bak and Johannes Hansen, District Heating 45(1):15-17 (July 1959)

1961 The Two Netherlanders: Humphrey Bradley and Cornelis Drebbel, by Lawrence Ernest Harris
Pages 189-191:  Drebbel made the proposal that since water had now been brought into London and was distributed to individual houses by means of pipes, a similar system could be adopted for the supply of heat.

1963 "A Commentary on the National Coal Board (British) and District Heating," District Heating 48(4):154 (April 1963)
By the Editorial Director of the English Magazine "The Steam Engineer"

1965 "District Heating in Helsinki, Finland," District Heating 50(3):93 (January, 1965)

1966 "The Technical and Economic Problems Associated with District Heating Plants," by Frederik E. Olson, District Heating 51(3):102-105 (January, 1966)
Denmark

1966 District Heating: A Brief Introduction to Planning Requirements, by Frederick Burlace Turpin

1967 "District Heating in Other Countries," District Heating 52(3):102-105 (Winter 1967)
England District Heating Association and District Heating Symposium; Sweden Agesta nuclear power station; Iceland

1967 "NDHA-Sponsored Mission to the U.S.S.R.," District Heating 52(3):84 (Winter 1967)
The report of the six-man delegation which visited Russia in the Fall of 1964 now is being printed. The mission, NDHA-sponsored, and arranged by the U. S. Government as part of an exchange program with the U.S.S.R., also included side trips to Denmark, Finland and Sweden.
Those caking pare in the inspection trip were: Leo F. Collins (Leader of the Mission), The Detroit Edison Company; James W. Megley (Deputy Leader), Boston Edison Company; James W. Althouse, Philadelphia Electric Company; Henry W. Angelery, Aerco Corporation; Urban A. Bowman, Carrier International, Ltd.; and Robert D. Martin, Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc.

1967 District Heating in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, with briefs on other European Countries, A report of the National District Heating Association.
USA engineers' view of USSR district heating. Report on a technical exchange mission on district heating agreed between USA and USSR. Six US district heating engineers made a thorough study tour of USSR and brief visits to Finland, Sweden (including Agesta nuclear district heating and electricity station) and Denmark. Information is also included on the status of district heating in Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and West Germany. The main towns visited in USSR were Leningrad, Moscow, Minsk, Kiev, Kharkov and Rostov. A different approach from most papers and reports (except the European Survey by HVRA) because it relates to direct personal experiences and on the spot investigations.

1968 "District Heating of a Small Town in Austria," by Leo Walter, District Heating 53(3):102-103 (Winter 1968)
Wels, Austria since November 1959.

1968 "England: District Heating Association, Limited," by Alfred Ernest Haseler, District Heating 54(1):15-16 (Summer 1968)

1968 "...Have you heard!...," District Heating 54(1):22 (Summer 1968)
Manchester, Dresden, Warsaw, Poland, Osaka.   Europe has a district heating handbook entitled District Heating, A Survey of Practice in Europe and America. It was prepared by The Heating and Ventilating
Research Association on behalf of the Design and Heating Study Group (solid fuel).

1968 "District Heat from the Electricity Works 1952-67," District Heating 54(2):9-17 (Fall 1968) | Erratum with corrected graphs. |
A publication of the District Heating Department of Helsinki, Finland

1968 "Refuse Incinerator District Heating Plant," District Heating 54(2):39 (Fall 1968)
Nottingham

1968 The Position of District Heating in the World, World Power Conference (1968).

1968 Space and District Heating, by Rudolph Maximilian Eugen Diamant, Jack McGarry

1969 "District Heating-Cooling International," District Heating 54(3):31, 33 (Winter 1969)
Germany, Denmark, United Kingdom (North Buckinghamshire, Newcastle, Yorkskire, Kirkhill)

1969 "...Have you heard!," District Heating 54(4):8 (Spring 1969)
Osaka and Sapporo, Japan

1969 "Provision of Energy for Non-Industrial Purposes in the United Kingdom," by W.L. Wilson and J.C. Knight, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International District Heating Association 60:118-133 (June 1969)

1969 "$14-million Central Plant could be model for future installations," District Heating 55(2):16-20 (Fall 1969)
Sapporo, Japan

1969 "...Have you heard!," District Heating 55(2):20, 30 (Fall 1969)
First international district heating conference to be held in London, April 20 to 24, 1970. U.S.S.R. Kazakstan geothermal; England discarded tires as district heating fuel; Nottingham refuse incineratin district heating plant; South Wales new type of reinforced plastic pipe.

1970 "District Heating being considered for Ankara, Turkey," District Heating 55(3):12 (Winter 1970)

1970 "International District Heating Convention," by A. W. Brown, District Heating 55(3):14-17 (Winter 1970)
London, England, Spring 1970, April 20-25.  Program details.

1970 "United States National Committee of the World Energy Conference," District Heating 55(3):18-19 (Winter 1970)

1970 "Community Heat and Power Station in Berne," by M. Gfeller and R. Gfeller, District Heating 55(4):13-17, 21-23 (Spring 1970)
First ever combination of garbage incineration heat supply and optimum power generation with high-duty radiation boilers.

1970 "A Comparison of Heat Distribution Systems in the U.S.A. and the World," by Richard Klink, Perma-Pipe, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International District Heating Association 61:65-83 (June 1970)

1970 "The Worldwide Position of District Heating and its concomitant responsibilities," by Dick E. Hart,  District Heating 56(1):20-23 (Summer 1970)
"The combustion of fossil fuels is altering the composition of atmosphere in ways that we do not yet fully understand."
Also noes on England, Denmark, Moscow, Alma-Ata and Munich.

1970 "1st International District Heating Convention," District Heating 56(2):9 (Fall 1970)
Held at London, England, April 20-24, 1970.

1970 The Development of the Factory, by Jennifer Tann
Pages 109-122: 

1971 "News from Europe," District Heating 56(3):30 (Winter 1971)
London, Stockholm, Munich, Hamburg, Copenhagen.

1971 "Waste Heats Vienna," by Franz Swaty, District Heating 56(4):12-16 (Spring 1971)

1971 "New Trends in Heating," by Alfred Ernest Haseler, District Heating 56(4):22-26 (Spring 1971)
United Kingdom.

1971 "News from other countries," District Heating 56(4):40 (Spring 1971)
Denmark, Northern Ireland

1971 "World-Wide Interest in District Heating," District Heating 57(2):27-30 (Fall 1971)
Summarization of two papers presented at the First International District Heating Convention in London, April 1970.

1971 "Incineration:  An engineering approach to the waste disposal crisis," by Erwin G. Hansen, District Heating 57(2):12-18 (Fall 1971)
Comparison of European and American methods.

1972 "Sapporo:  Modern Japan, start-up of new district heating system," by Senya Akagi and Louis Malfitani, District Heating 57(4):12-15 (Spring 1972)

1972 "News from other countries," District Heating 57(4):40 (Spring 1972)
Sweden: Tokyo; Bremen

1972 "New Techniques for Telethermics:  Their Critical Importance for Conservation and the Environment," by Alfred Ernest Haseler, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International District Heating Association 63:183-210 (June 1972)
Telethermics = heat distribution systems

1972 "District Heating in the U.S.S.R.," District Heating 58(2):38 (Fall 1972)
District cooling in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

1973 "Second International District Heating Convention," District Heating 59(1):46,48 (July-August 1973)
Budapest, Hungary, May 8-10, 1973

1973 "District Heating in Finland," by U. Holme, District Heating 59(2):16-19 (October-November 1973)

1973 "The Economic and Environmental Aspects of District Heating in Sweden," by Bertil Kohler, District Heating 59(2):22-25 (October-November 1973)

1973 Underground Heat and Chilled Water Distribution Systems: Proceedings for the Symposium on Underground Heat and Chilled Water Distribution Systems, Held in Washington, D.C., November 26-27, 1973, edited by Tamami Kusuda

1974 "Nottingham Refuse Incineration and District Heating Scheme," District Heating 59(4):14-18 (April-May-June 1974)

1974 "Present Situation of Refuse Incineration in Japan and Problems in Utilization of its Waste Heat for District Heating and Other Purposes," District Heating 59(4):22-26 (April-May-June 1974)
Includes number of incinerating plants and pants utilizing waste heat in prefectures

1974 "Have You Heard...," District Heating 59(4):32 (April-May-June 1974)
Includes number of incinerating plants and pants utilizing waste heat in prefectures
Switzerland; U.S.S.R.; Germany; Holland

1974 "Denmark Leads in District Heating," District Heating 60(1):9-10 (July-August-September 1974)

1974 "Proposed International Study of District Heating and Cooling by Battelle Memorial Institute," District Heating 60(2):8 (October-November-December 1974)

1974 "UNICHAL President A. Visseq Meets with IDHA Officials," District Heating 60(2):9 (October-November-December 1974)

1974 "West Germany Planning National District Heating System," District Heating 60(2):15 (October-November-December 1974)

1974 "Waste Heat By Utilities and Industries In Urban Areas In Japan," by Toshio Ojima and Kochiro Nezu,  District Heating 60(2):26-31 (October-November-December 1974)

1975 "Municipal Incineration Plants with Heat Utilization," by Alfred Ernest Haseler, District Heating 60(3):13-18 (January-February-March 1975)
List of Municipal Incineration Plants with Heat Utilization

1975 "District Heating and Cooling in Japan," by Senya Akagi and Yoshio Kitao, District Heating 60(3):27-31 (January-February-March 1975)
List of District Heating and Cooling Project in Japan October 1974

1975 "Overseas District Heating Conferences," District Heating 60(3):33 (January-February-March 1975)
UNICHAL, Paris; Third International District Heating Convention, Warsaw; UK National Conference, Brighton.

1975 "In the Polish Manner," by Witold Wasilewski, District Heating 60(4):14-19 (April-May-June 1975)

1975 "Why Waste All That Heat?," by Alfred Ernest Haseler, District Heating 60(4):22-26 (April-May-June 1975)

1975 "Technical and Economic Possibilities of District Heating in Switzerland: A Study for the Federal Bureau of Energy," by R. Ecabert, W. Heibling, and H.J. Leimer, District Heating 61(1):24-31 (July-August-September 1975)

1975 "District Heating, The Spirit of '76 and International Relations," by Ellwood S. Clymer, Jr., District Heating 61(2):2-3 (October-November-December 1975)

1975 "President Clymer Responds to Energy International Magazine," District Heating 61(2):7-9 (October-November-December 1975)
Includes the original article, "Steam or Water: The District Heating Conflict," from Energy International (June 1975)

1975 "President Clymer's Official Greeting to UNICHAL," District Heating 61(2):12-13, 15 (October-November-December 1975)
Includes Mr. Visseq's Reply in French and English.

1975 "Conferences on District Heating in Europe," District Heating 61(2):15 (October-November-December 1975)
Third International District Heating Convention in Warsaw and International Total Energy Congress in Copenhagen.

1975 "Germany Looks Toward Nuclear District Heating," District Heating 61(2):22-26 (October-November-December 1975)

1976 "International Total Energy Congress," District Heating 61(3):34 (January-February-March 1976)
October 4-8, 1976, Copenhagen, Denmark

1976 "European Municipal Incineration Plants with Heat Utilization," by Alfred Ernest Haseler, District Heating 61(3):38-43 (January-February-March 1976)
Corrected and updated from 1975 list

1976 "IDHA President's Address to the Third International District Heating Convention," District Heating 61(4):2-4 (April-May-June 1976)
Warsaw, Poland, April 1976

1976 "Global Internationalism in District Heating," by Norman Jenkins, District Heating 61(4):18-19, 21 (April-May-June 1976)

1976 "District Heating Reviewed," by Andrew Paterson, District Heating 61(4):34-36 (April-May-June 1976)
District Heating in the United Kingdom

1976 "New Types of Hot Water Distribution Systems for Low Density Heat Areas," by Peter Margen, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International District Heating Association 67:68-88 (June 1976)

1976 "Residential District Heating in Hungary," District Heating 62(1):37 (July-August-September 1976)

1976 "ITEC Report," by Edward Stoltz, Jr., Manager, Central Heating and Cooling Products, Johns-Manville Sales Corporation, District Heating 62(2):8, 18 (October-November-December 1976)
Report from International Total Energy Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark, October 4-8, 1976.
It was quite apparent that District Heating in Europe is significantly different and much further advanced than in the USA. The great majority of existing systems are hot water (120-125 C), but the trend is to get down to the 80-85 C range. The need for conservation of every bit of energy was vividly displayed when we observed, in Odense, Denmark a 20-in. (508-mm) main with 2-3/4-in. of polyurethane foam operating at only 85 C.

1976 "General Report Therma 1," by Professor Jacob Marecki, District Heating 62(2):38-46 (October-November-December 1976)
First summary of papers presented at the first part of the Third International District Heating Conference in Warsaw, Poland, April 6-9, 1976.

1976 "General Report Therma II," by Professor Czeslaw Mejro, District Heating 62(2):34-41 (October-November-December 1976)
Second summary of papers presented at the Third International District Heating Conference in Warsaw, Poland, April 6-9, 1976.

1977 "Nuclear Heat for Industrial Purposes and District Heating," District Heating 62(3):19, 22, 24 (January-February-March 1977)

1977 "General Report Therma III," by Professor Stanislaw Andrzejewski, District Heating 62(3):30-38 (January-February-March 1977)
Third summary of papers presented at the Third International District Heating Conference in Warsaw, Poland, April 6-9, 1976.

1977 "Central Power Plant of the Free University in Amsterdam, The Netherlands," by L. van der Meer,  District Heating 62(4):10-12 (April-May-June 1977)

1977 "General Report Therma IV, Part 1," by Professor Withold Kamler and Professor Dr. Witold Wasilewski, District Heating 62(4):34-41 (April-May-June 1977)
Fourth summary, Part 1, of papers presented at the Third International District Heating Conference in Warsaw, Poland, April 6-9, 1976.

1977 "General Report Therma IV, Part 2," by Professor Withold Kamler and Professor Dr. Witold Wasilewski, District Heating 63(1):34-42 (July-August-September 1977)
Fourth summary, Part 2, of papers presented at the Third International District Heating Conference in Warsaw, Poland, April 6-9, 1976.

1977 "Energy Conservation Through Utilization of Waste Heat," by Bertil Kohler, District Heating 63(2):14-16 (October, November, December 1977)
Sweden

1977 District heating : an annotated bibliography, 2nd edition, by Alfred Ernest Haseler

1978 "Survey of Existing District Heating Systems," by Volker Scholten and Manfred Timm, Nuclear Technology 38 (April 1978)

1978 Proceedings of the Workshop on Community Energy Conservation:  United States and Sweden, April 1978
New Ulm, Minnesota and Mora, Sweden

1978 "Overseas Trip Report," by James P. Lagowski, District Heating 63(3):15-18 (January-February-March 1978)
Finland and Sweden

1978 "Development of District Heating in Finland," by Unto Kilpinen, District Heating 63(3):22-26 (January-February-March 1978)

1978 "District Heating: Swedish Experience of an Energy Efficient Concept," by Kjell Larsson, District Heating 63(4):14-16, 18-19, 22-24, 26-28, 30, 32 (April-May-June 1978)

1978 "1979 Overseas Meetings," District Heating 63(4):35 (April, May, June 1978)
UK District Heating Association; UNICHAL, Stockholm

1978 "Role of District Heating in the Energy Supply of Stockholm," Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International District Heating Association 69:77-113 (June 1978)

1978 "Cost Calculations for District Heating Networks with Different Heat Densities and Utilization Factors," Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International District Heating Association 69:114-127 (June 1978)
Stockholm

1978 "Nottingham Refuse Incineration - District Heating Scheme," by Ronald C. Huxford, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International District Heating Association 69:195-230 (June 1978)

1978 "District Heating in Brescia," by Luigi F. Bottio, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International District Heating Association 69:315-370 (June 1978)

1978 "Energy Aspects of District Heating in Poland," by Janusz Rosada, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International District Heating Association 69:389-402 (June 1978)

1978 "Fyriskraft Combined Heat and Power Plant," by Lars E. Astrand, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International District Heating Association 69:449-469 (June 1978)

1978 "Choice of a Solution for Feeding C.P.C.U. Network," by A. Triboulet, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International District Heating Association 69:491-496 (June 1978)

1978 "Potential of District Heating in the Federal Republic of Germany," by Hans Neuffer, AGFW, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International District Heating Association 69:576-602 (June 1978)

1978 "1978 Swedish District Heating Workshops," District Heating 64(1):5 (July-August-September 1978)

1978 "St. James Center, Edinburgh, Scotland," District Heating 64(1):13-14, 28, 36, 8, 22, 40 (July-August-September 1978)

1978 "District Heating with Combined Heat and Power Generation, Survey of Present Day Practice," by R.M.E. Diamant, District Heating 64(1):30-34, 40 (July-August-September 1978)

1978 "Comparative Study:  Energy use in the U.S. and Sweden," District Heating 64(2):36 (October-November-December 1978)

1979 "U.S.S.R. Trip Report," by William Diskant, American Hydrotherm Corporation, District Heating 64(3):1213, 17 (January-February-March 1979)

1979 "Combined Heat and Power:  The Present Position," by G. T. Shepherd, Chairman, Midlands Electricity Board, District Heating 65(2):23-24, 27-28, 30 (October-November-December 1979)
United Kingdom 

1979 "Heat Mains:  Europe's Longest Sea Crossing," by Alfred Ernest Haseler, District Heating 65(2):34, 37 (October-November-December 1979)
Denmark

1980 "Geothermal District Heating:  An Overview," District Heating 65(3):34, 37 (January-February-March 1980)
Iceland; Europe; USSR; United States

1980 "Report on the 1979 UNICHAL Congress," District Heating 65(4):40 (2md Quarter 1980)
Stockholm, May 14-18, 1979

1980 "The IV IDHC Is Over, Long Live the V IDHC," District Heating 66(2):7 (4th Quarter 1980)
Fourth International District Heating Conference, Brescia, Italy, May 14-17, 1980.

1980 "Operating Politics, Problems and Experiences with the Helsinki Energy Supply System," by Unto Kilpinen and Pentti Rouhiainen, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International District Heating Association 71:(10)1-45 (June 1980)

1981 "Heat Energy Measurement in Finland," by Alpo Tuominiemi, District Heating 66(2):29-32, 34, 36, 40-41, 43, 45-47 (1st Quarter 1981)

1981 "Future trends in hot water district heating in Europe," by Lars Astrand, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International District Heating Association 72:(7)1-27 (June 1981)

1981 "Pre-Insulated Piping - The State of the Art 1981," by Larry Stonitch, Rovanco, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International District Heating Association 72:(15)1-9 (June 1981)
Piping in Europe and the United States, European District Heating Boards and the need for a U.S. Board

1981 "Trip Report of Visit to France and Denmark of the IDHA Representative to the Geothermal District Heating 'Blue Ribbon Panel'," by Norman R. Taylor, District Heating 67(2):10, 12-13 (4th Quarter 1981)

1981 District heating and cooling for energy conservation, by Rudolph Maximilian Eugen Diamant

1982 "V International District Energy Conference," by Clem Crooks, District Heating 68(2):35-37 (4th Quarter 1982)
Kiev, September 1982

1982 Building services engineering: a review of its development, by Neville Samuel Billington and Brian M. Roberts
Pages 73-176:  Heating including district heating

1983 "European Energy Innovation Study Program," by Norman R. Taylor, District Heating 68(3):35-37 (1st Quarter 1983)

1983 "Report on Trip to Finland," District Heating 69(2):32-35 (4th Quarter 1983)

1983 District Heating Handbook, Fourth Edition, International District Heating Association  | also available from IDEA |
Pages 4-8:  Experience of Other Countries with District Heating.  Finland; Sweden; Denmark; England; West Germany; Switzerland; Italy; Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; Czechoslovakia; Rumania; Poland; Hungary; Bulgaria

1984 "Refuse and Coal Fired Boilers Team Up at Duesseldorf to Cogenerate Electricity and District Heat (1)," by Klaus S. Feindler, District Heating 69(4):25-38 (2nd Quarter 1984)

1984 "Refuse and Coal Fired Boilers Team Up at Duesseldorf to Cogenerate Electricity and District Heat (2)," by Klaus S. Feindler, District Heating 70(1):15-18 (3rd Quarter 1984)

1986 "District Heating and Energy Policy in Sweden," District Heating and Cooling 72(1):20-34 (3rd Quarter 1986)

1986 "An Underground Piping System Made Entirely of Plastic in Use in Sweden," District Heating and Cooling 72(2):43-44 (4th Quarter 1986)

1987 "Trends and Aspects in District Heating: The View from Denmark," by H.C. Mortensen, President, Metropolitan Copenhagen Heating Transmission Company, District Heating, 72(4):29-31 (2nd Quarter 1987)

1987 "A Report from Unichal," by Dr. E. Keppler, General Secretary, District Heating and Cooling 73(2):24-25, 41 (Fourth Quarter 1987)
The International Union of Heat Distributors (UNICHAL)

1990 "Poland:  Energy and Environmental Improvement Through Technical Exchanger," by Henry Manczyk, District Heating and Cooling 76(1):25-28 (Third Quarter 1990)

1990 "District Heating:  A Scandinavian Strategy for Cleaner Air," District Heating and Cooling 76(1):43-44, 48 (Third Quarter 1990)

1990 "District Heating and Cooling:  A Clean Solution," by H.C. Morensen, District Heating and Cooling 76(2):17-19, 48 (Fourth Quarter 1990)

1991 "UNICHAL's District Heating Congress Highlights Challenge and Opportunity in Eastern Europe," by J. J. Hoff and D. Dijk, District Heating and Cooling 77(1):31-35 (Third Quarter 1991)

1992 "Burn that Trash: Sweden, Denmark use State-of the-Art Incinerators to Burn Garbage and Generate Low-Cost Energy," by David Israelson, District Heating and Cooling 77(3):17-19, 48 (First Quarter 1992)

1992 "Amer Heat:  Penetrating a New Market Segment," District Heating and Cooling 78(2):5-9 (Fourth Quarter 1992)
Greenhouses Tap into District Heating in the Netherlands.

1992 "The United Kingdom's First District Heating System Delivers 'Green Heat'," by Stephen Brooks, District Heating and Cooling 78(2):12-17 (Fourth Quarter 1992)

1992 District Heating Comes to Town: The Social Shaping of an Energy System, by Jane Summerton
An account of installing district heat in the Swedish municipality of Mjölby.

1992 "Chaudes-Aigues: historique des utilisations de la géothermie," P. Raynal, J.P. Gibert, and C. Barthomeuf, Réseau & Chaleur 4(16):67-75 (1992).

1994 "District Heating and Cooling in the Pacific Rim:  A Growth Industry," District Heating and Cooling 79(3):17-37 (First Quarter 1994)
Korea, Japan, China

1994 "The Marquis de Chabannes, Pioneer of Central Heating and Inventor," by Martin Mead and Andrew Saint, Transactions of the Newcomen Society for the Study of the History of Engineering and Technology 66(1):193-213 (1994)

1999 "Using Geothermal Waters in France: The District Heating System of Chaudes-Aigues from the Middle Ages," Pages 287-305, Stories from a Heated Earth: Our Geothermal Heritage, by Jean Pierre Gilbert and Florence Juadin

2006 "Jean Simon Bonnemain (1743-1830) and the Origins of Hot Water Central Heating," Emmanuelle Gallo, Proceedings of the Second International Congress on Construction History, Jun 2006, Cambridge, United Kingdom. pp.1043-1060.

2016 Joseph Paxton:  The Great Stove and the Crystal Palaces, by Brian Roberts

2017 "International review of district heating and cooling," by Sven Werner, Energy 137:617-631 (April 2017)

2020 Distribution of district heating | 1st Generation | 2nd Generation | 3rd Generation | 4th Generation | by Jan Eric Thorsen, Oddgeir Gudmundsson, and Marek Brand, Danfoss District Heating Application Centre

2023 Michigan Steam Supply Cost Recovery Report, May 3, 2023
Utilities that Provide Steam Service to Customers
DTE Electric Company 1 customer
Detroit Thermal LLC  67 customers
Lansing Board of Water and Light 155 customers
Vicinity Energy Grand Rapids 70 customers

Additional information, suggestions, questions, and corrections are always welcome and can be submitted to:

Morris A. Pierce
Department of History
362 Rush Rhees Library
University of Rochester
Rochester NY 14627-0070
m.pierce@rochester.edu

Last updated March 31, 2024.

© 2020-2024 Morris A. Pierce