Stock Photo - Oct. 10, 1973 - CENTENARY CELEBRATION. Dr. William D. Coolidge, famed inventor of the ductile tungsten used for filaments in virtually all electric lamps and of the Coolidge X-ray tube which made possible modern medical and industrial X-ray technology, observed his 100th birthday in Schenectady, N.Y., on October 23. Dr. Coolidge joined the staff of the General Electric Research Laboratory in 1905, and was its director from 1932 to 1945. He was succeeded by Dr. C. Guy Suits (right), director until 1965, and by Dr. Arthur M. Bueche (left) who became General Electric's vice president for research and development when Dr. Suits retired. the birthday cake was lighted with 100 ductile-tungsten lamps and topped by the target from an early Coolidge tube encrusted with 100 tiny diamonds surrounding one of GE's large laboratory-made gem diamonds. (Credit Image: © Keystone Press Agency/Keystone USA via ZUMAPRESS.com)