Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
S.C. DIKE COMPANY
S. C. DIKE COMPANY. The S. C. Dike Company around 1911 manufactured Key City Boiler Compound. This product, used in steam boilers, neutralized the effects of mineral salts in all water entering steam plants. It also slowly dissolved the old scale inside the boiler.
This was in contrast to other products which removed the scale in sheets by creeping under it and bursting it from the boilers by the formation of a gas. This bursting of scale in sheets from badly scaled boilers had been linked to many explosions. Scale left in the boiler reduced the machine's efficiency because it was a nonconductor of heat. Studies indicated that between 13% to 68% more coal was needed when scale was allowed to accumulate.