Philips Infraphil HP3609/S Infrared Lamp

Materials: Folded chromed metal (iron) wire base. Conical white plastic lampshade with a handle. Porcelain E27 socket.

Height: 20 – 25 cm / 7.87 x 9.84” – adjustable

Lampshade: 13 x 21 cm / 5.11 x 8.26”

Base: ∅ 15 x 18 cm / 5.90 x 7.08”

Electricity: 1 bulb E27, 1 x 150 watt maximum, 110/220 volt.
Any type of light bulb can be used, but a PAR38 infrared lamp is preferred.

Period: 1970s, 1980s – Mid-Century Modern.

Designer: To be appraised.

Manufacturer: Philips, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

Other versions: The Philips Infraphil HP3609/S infrared lamp exists in several models. Philips infrared lamps are in production since 1945 in many models. The name Infraphil is still in use for their range of infrared lamps, but other models of course.

This infrared lamp is the first in the Infraphil range that uses an E27 socket. All lamps produced in the years before have a B22 bayonet fitting.

Koninklijke Philips N.V.

Inspired by the fast-growing electricity industry and by the promising results of Gerard Philips’ own experiments with reliable carbon filaments, his father, the Jewish banker Frederik Philips from Zaltbommel, financed the purchase of a small factory in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, on 15 May 1891.

The first years were difficult and the company was close to bankruptcy, but in 1895 Gerard’s younger brother Anton Philips joined the firm. With Anton’s commercial drive the family business expanded very quickly and the Philips brothers turned the lamp factory into the basis of what would become a major international electronics company.

To secure the supply of lamp parts, Philips very early started to make things in-house: its own machines, its own glass (from 1916) and even its own gas separation to fill lamps with argon, so it was less dependent on German suppliers during wartime. This strong vertical integration became typical for Philips and later also supported radio and medical products.

From the 1920s onward Philips did not only make lamps but also radios and even ran its own shortwave stations (PCJ and PHOHI) to promote them worldwide – an early mix of product and broadcasting.

In later sources the “first Philips shaver” is sometimes put in the early 1930s, but Philips itself dates the electric Philishave to 1939; in any case it shows how the company moved from lighting into small household and personal devices.

On 9 May 1940, the day before the German invasion, the Philips family left for the United States with a large part of the company’s capital. From there they continued operations as the North American Philips Company and kept control over the group during the war. After 1945 the headquarters returned to the Netherlands, again in Eindhoven.

After the war Philips became a broad technology group: radios, televisions, X-ray and medical equipment, and of course lighting, which remained one of its core businesses for decades. Only much later, in 2016, the lighting activities were split off and continued under the name Signify – all vintage Philips luminaires on this site belong to the period when lighting was still an integral part of Philips.

Today Philips is mainly a health-technology company. The roots are still in Eindhoven, but since 2025 the head office is in Amsterdam (Prinses Irenestraat 59).

Philips Infraphil 7529

The internet is filled with advertisements for this model of the Infraphil heat lamp. All attributed to Charlotte Perriand. It is a HOAX. Charlotte Perriand never designed for Philips.

Charlotte Perriand had an image of the Phillips Infraphil 7529 in her inspiration archive, which is why it was also in a book at an exhibition at the Center Pompidou in Paris, France in 2005 – 2006. People who have not read this have brought this myth into the world.