The Folsom power plant predates Niagara Falls Adams power House generating AC electrical transmission for local use and shipment to Buffalo, New York in 1897. The International Electro-Technical Exhibition - 1891 in Frankfurt am Main Germany demonstrated an earlier instance of long distance AC transmission of hydroelectric power. Westinghouse Electric Company and General Electric were in a race to develop better equipment and bring it to the United States. Water supply The water for the original Folsom hydroelectric plant was obtained from a diversion dam, long, wide at the top; wide at the bottom and tall, across the American River built in the 1890s. The dam diverted a large stream of water into a long diversion canal—the East Canal. This canal was wide and deep, carrying about of water per minute. The canal paralleled the river but sloped much less steeply gradually getting about above the river. The dam and canal were completed in 1893 under the direction of Horatio Gates Livermore who originally thought to use the power of the falling water to power a sawmill. Livermore utilized in part contracted prison labor from the nearby Folsom State Prison to help build the dam and canal. The geometry of the canal forebay and the American River gave the Folsom power plant a Hydraulic head of water of about (about was usable) before its water was discharged back into the American River. Initially only about of this hydraulic head was used. The water from the canal ended in a forebay where water borne debris was separated from the water and it was fed into four large penstocks and two smaller penstocks. All penstocks had water gates that could be closed to turn the water off on any turbine for maintenance. The AC generators, some of the largest designed and built up to that time, were powered via four penstocks full of rushing water driving four large turbines. Turbines The four large water turbines, some of the largest built up to that time, were made by S. Morgan Smith Works of York, Pennsylvania. There were two small penstocks plus turbines for the two DC generators. Rushing water from the American River passing through four large water turbines powered the four AC generators and two more turbines powered smaller DC generators. Governors The four large turbines were connected directly to the alternating current generators and their speed controlled by adjusting the water