1976 Philips 16CP 100 Jaar Gerard Philips (225 V 60 W)

This modern carbon filament lamp was made in 1976 to commemorate the centenary of the start of Gerard Philips’s technical education. When he turned 18 he enrolled at the Delft polytechnic school (TU Delft now) where he initially studied civil engineering. He eventually graduated in mechanical engineering, for which he received a diploma in 1883 (Werktuigkundig Ingenieur). This technical training proved crucial years later when he developed the mass production of carbon filament lamps in his home country following the purchase in 1891 of a small vacant factory building in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, with his father Frederik.

Only a hundred of those commemorative lamps were made in Eindhoven using components sourced from Philips’s incandescent lamp mother factory in Weert, the Netherlands. An exhaust tube was added to the bulb crown and a golden metallic luster coating was applied to the outer glass surface so as to create a distinctive vintage look. Interestingly, the finishing steps of the lamp's production, i.e., pumping, flashing and sealing, were done before a public audience at the company's museum located in the original factory building on the Emmasingel. The rest of the lamp is identical to the standard Weert-made 60 W 16 CP carbon filament lamp that Philips sold during the 1970s for technical (infrared irradiation and resistive ballasting) and decorative applications. The luster coating became a standard feature in later commercial decorative carbon filament lamps.