DUBUQUE STEAM HEAT COMPANY

DUBUQUE STEAM HEAT COMPANY. In July 1879 the Dubuque Steam Heat Company was incorporated by George Benjamin BURCH, president; John N. Manning, superintendent; Alonzo J. VAN DUZEE, treasurer; and A. Palmer, secretary. The first pipes to carry the heat were buried in trenches on August 14, 1879 and had nearly reached Main along 6th Street. (1) By October 3, 1879 three miles of mains had been buried in addition to the lateral pipes connecting buildings to the mains. (2) One of the first commercial buildings to be heated was the DUBUQUE CUSTOM HOUSE AND POST OFFICE. (3) The company planned to lay pipes to supply most of the city below the bluffs the first year and then move into the hill area. (4)

The building to house the boiler and machines used to distribute the steam throughout the city was located near the corner of 6th and Iowa STREETS. There were four tubular boilers each with its own furnace. Each furnace reduced coal to coke and fed the fires. Each boiler, five feet in diameter and sixteen feet long, could produce enough steam in an hour to heat 1.5 million cubic feet. (5)

E. P. Holly, son of the founder of the Holly System, and Superintendent Frederick I. MASSEY tested the mains on October 7, 1879 and found everything satisfactory. Since the company's boilers were not ready, steam for the test was supplied by the engine of the Dubuque Herald. (6)

Steam transferred through the main was at fifty pounds per square inch. This meant there was no advantage to being near the boiler house. (7) The steam used by an individual consumer was recorded on a strip of paper that moved through a meter. Steam cooking was also encouraged on a special stove that allowed for the cooking of several items at the same time. (8) The possibility of using steam to melt snow and ice were advertised. (9)

MORRISON BROTHERS COMPANY announced in August 1879 that they were ready to work in cooperation with the Holly System to install steam heating. (10) The system was tested by E. R. Holly, Jr. and Superintendent Manning on October 8, 1879. The system went into operation on October 16, 1879. (11)

After the first year of operation, approximately sixty customers were served using two miles of cast iron pipe 5.5 inches in interior diameter. These were encased in a wooden tube which was soaked in tar and rolled in sand. This coating and the 2-3 inch gap between the gas pipe and the tube was meant to reduce excess heat from escaping. The pipes to the customer were buried five feet underground in two foot brick channels. Expansion junction boxes every 100 to 300 feet collected any water that condensed and this was carried through pipes with the steam and sent back to the plant after the cooling of the steam. (12)

Competition from the Minneapolis Steam Heating Company was not expected in February 1880 when the company was denied a charter of more than ten years from the city council. It had planned on a thirty year charter to do business in the city. (13)

The fate of the steam heat system was undoubtedly sealed when electricity became as economical. (14)

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Source:

1. "Caught on the Fly," Dubuque Herald, August 15, 1879, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=uh8FjILnQOkC&dat=18790815&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

2. "Dubuque's Steps Forward," Dubuque Herald, October 3, 1879, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=uh8FjILnQOkC&dat=18791003&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

3. Ibid.

4. McClimon, Kevin. "S-s-s-steam Heat," Dubuque Folklore II, American Trust and Savings Bank, p. 65-68

5. Ibid.

6. "Holly Heating," Dubuque Herald, October 8, 1879, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=uh8FjILnQOkC&dat=18791008&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid.

10. "Steam Heating," Dubuque Herald, August 28, 1879, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=uh8FjILnQOkC&dat=18790828&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

11. McClimon

12. "The New Enterprise," Dubuque Herald, August 23, 1879, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=uh8FjILnQOkC&dat=18790823&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

13. "Caught on the Fly," Dubuque Herald, February 13, 1880, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=uh8FjILnQOkC&dat=18800213&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

14. Ibid.