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1890

Elihu Thomson (1853-1937) was awarded an honorary degree. He was involved with artificial lighting, electric power generation and was the organizer of the Thomson-Houston Electric Company in 1880. He was a member of the National Academy of Science and President of AIEE. The Thomson-Houston Electric Company and the Edison Electric Company were merged to form The General Electric Company in 1892.

1892

Yale University awarded an honorary degree to Donald Alexander Smith (1820-1914), The Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal. He was the builder of the Canadian Pacific Railway and Chancellor at McGill and Aberdeen Universities. He was a major benefactor of the Sheffield Scientific School. Upon the death of Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal he bequeathed funds “to be used for a building for the benefit of modern science, civil and mechanical engineering and to support two professorships in engineering.”

1893

Winchester Hall dedicated, with its laboratories for Civil, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and Physics.

1894

Yale University awarded an honorary degree to Nikola Tesla (1857-1943). At this time he was recognized as a scientist who invented the alternating current induction motor and the associated polyphase circuitry. These inventions made possible our modern electric power distribution system. He delighted in popularizing the marvelous world of electricity before audiences in Europe and America.