Dolgeville Hydropower 1879

Dolgeville Hydro-power 1879
Possibly the first hydro-electric power in North America?

The Westinghouse generator here sits in place of the original 1879 dynamo. Photo from www.dolgeville.info

Dolgeville New York was known as Brockett’s Bridge when manufacturing started there in 1875. Alfred Dolge was born in Germany (Saxony) in 1848, he came to Dolgeville as an investor and ran factories there. Most of his workers were German immigrants. He paid for the installation of a pre-Edison dynamo run by water power. More must be done to investigate this history. We will visit Dolgeville and find the evidence later this year.

Other early hydro power plant links:

Mechanicville Power Station, Mechanicville, New York 1897

Folsom Powerhouse, Folsom California 1895

Redlands Mill Creek 1 powerhouse Redlands, CA 1893

Schaghticoke Power Station and Steinmetz’s monocyclic power experiment

Great Barrington 1886 The first AC power distribution system using transformers

Photos by Michael Whelan
Technical information by Steve Normandin, Rick DeLair
Edison Tech Center, Schenectady, NY