Modern powder metallurgy owes its foundation to the discovery of means for producing ductile tungsten filaments for incandescent lamps. The historical background to the development of ductile tungsten wire by Coolidge is traced. A major industrial alloy of tungsten is the high-density alloy known as GEC Heavy Alloy. The background to the invention of the tungsten-nickel-copper alloys at the GEC Research Laboratories, Wembley in 1935 is documented and examples given of their use.