Philips Museum

Gerard Philips and his father Frederik bought a small building on the Emmasingel in 1891 and began making carbon-filament lamps; the business nearly failed twice in the first years and was rescued when Gerard's younger brother Anton took over the selling side and started shifting volume, including a very large order to Russia. The museum is in that first factory. It covers the sequence from lamps to radios, shavers, X-ray tubes, the compact cassette and the compact disc - both developed by Philips - and the medical imaging business the company is now. Eindhoven exists in its present form because of this firm: the Philips housing estates, the sports club, the research laboratory and the whole industrial structure of the city followed from it, which the museum sets out. Manufacturing has largely gone from the city, which the displays do not hide.

What's there

• The 1891 first factory - the building where carbon-filament lamps were first made.
• Lamps to medical imaging - the sequence through radio, shavers and X-ray tubes.
• The cassette and the CD - both developed by the company, shown here.
• A city built by a firm - the housing, sport and research that followed from it.

When to go

All year. Half a day.

Before you go

Closed Mondays. It is a corporate museum and reads as one in places, though it does not hide the loss of manufacturing. Eindhoven's centre around it is postwar and unremarkable.

Nearby

Strijp-S is west; the Van Abbemuseum is a short walk.

Key facts