La Compagnie des Lampes ("The Lamp Company") was a name used by several French companies all in the area of electrical products particularly lighting.

La Compagnie des Lampes (1888)

The original ''Compagnie des Lampes'' was set up at

Ivry-sur-Seine Ivry-sur-Seine () is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. Paris's main Asian district, the Quartier Asiatique in the 13th arrondissement, borders the co ...

in 1888. The plant was subsequently attached to the CGE (Compagnie Générale d'Electricité) on its acquisition in 1898. The plant is classified as a historical monument. In 1915, the plant was the second to start manufacturing ''TM'' triodes ("Télégraphie Militaire") in France, under their ''Métal'' brand (the first was E.C.&A. Grammont (

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

) under their ''Radio Fotos'' brand). Later they made tubes for domestic AC transformer heating such as th
BW604
an
BW1010
under their ''Métal- Secteur'' brand.

La Compagnie des Lampes (1911)

Founded in 1911 by Paul Blavier, ''La Compagnie des Lampes'' was a light bulb factory workshop, located in

Saint-Pierre-Montlimart Saint-Pierre-Montlimart () is a former commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France. Geography The commune is traversed by the Èvre river. History On 15 December 2015, La Boissière-sur-Èvre, Chaudron-en-Mauges, La Chaussaire ...

, near

Cholet Cholet (, , probably from Latin language, Latin ''cauletum'', "cabbage") is a Communes of France, commune of western France in the Maine-et-Loire Departments of France, department. With 54,307 inhabitants (2019), it is the second most populous c ...

. The company changed its name in 1918 to become ''Manufacture de lampes à incandescence, la Française''. It was associated with the Thomson group in the 1950s.

La Compagnie des Lampes (1921)

In 1921 CFTH ( Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston) and CGE ( Compagnie Générale d'Electricité) jointly created a new ''Compagnie des Lampes''. It later became a major player in the field of lighting in France, notably through its brand

MAZDA , commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan. In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly one m ...

. Between 1924 and 1939, it was part of the

Phoebus cartel The Phoebus cartel was an oligopoly that controlled the manufacture and sale of incandescent light bulbs. They appropriated market territories and lowered the useful life of such bulbs. Corporations based in Europe and the United States founded t ...

, an oligopoly that dominated the market for light bulbs while putting in place an agreement on the principle of

planned obsolescence In economics and industrial design, planned obsolescence (also called built-in obsolescence or premature obsolescence) is a policy of planning or designing a product with an artificially limited useful life or a purposely frail design, so that ...

for their products. Besides light bulbs (and like British ''Ediswan''), CdL (1921) also made

vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. The type kn ...

s under the ''Mazda'' brand, for exampl
6H8G (1947)3T100A1 (1949)E1 (1950)
since 1953 as ''LAMPE MAZDA''
2G21 (1953)927 (1954)EL183 (1959)EF816 (1962)
Many of their tubes were also available from ''Compagnie Industrielle Française des Tubes Electroniques'' (CIFTE) under their ''Mazda-Belvu'' brand (originating from ''Societé Radio Belvu'', which sold Grammont's ''Fotos'' tubes).

References

Electrical engineering companies of France Lighting brands Vacuum tubes {{DEFAULTSORT:Compagnie des Lampes