page_title: Bakelite
section_title: Applications and uses
hierarchical_section_title: Bakelite / Applications and uses
caption_attribution_description: Old Bakelit light tumbler switches and socket from Tamil Nadu
context_page_description: Bakelite or polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride was the first plastic made from synthetic components. It is a thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin, formed from a condensation reaction of phenol with formaldehyde. It was developed by the Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland in Yonkers, New York, in 1907.
  Bakelite was patented on December 7, 1909. The creation of a synthetic plastic was revolutionary for its electrical nonconductivity and heat-resistant properties in electrical insulators, radio and telephone casings and such diverse products as kitchenware, jewelry, pipe stems, children's toys, and firearms.
  In recent years the "retro" appeal of old Bakelite products has made them collectible.
  Bakelite was designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark on November 9, 1993, by the American Chemical Society in recognition of its significance as the world's first synthetic plastic.
context_section_description: The characteristics of Bakelite made it particularly suitable as a molding compound, an adhesive or binding agent, a varnish, and a protective coating. Bakelite was particularly suitable for the emerging electrical and automobile industries because of its extraordinarily high resistance to electricity, heat, and chemical action.
  The earliest commercial use of Bakelite in the electrical industry was the molding of tiny insulating bushings, made in 1908 for the Weston Electrical Instrument Corporation by Richard W. Seabury of the Boonton Rubber Company. Bakelite was soon used for non-conducting parts of telephones, radios and other electrical devices, including bases and sockets for light bulbs and electron tubes (vacuum tubes), supports for any type of electrical components, automobile distributor caps and other insulators. By 1912, it was being used to make billiard balls, since its elasticity and the sound it made were similar to ivory.
  During World War I, Bakelite was used widely, particularly in electrical systems. Important projects included the Liberty airplane engine, the wireless telephone and radio phone, and the use of micarta-bakelite propellors in the NBS-1 bomber and the DH-4B aeroplane.
  Bakelite's availability and ease and speed of molding helped to lower the costs and increase product availability so that telephones and radios became common household consumer goods. It was also very important to the developing automobile industry. It was soon found in myriad other consumer products ranging from pipe stems and buttons to saxophone mouthpieces, cameras, early machine guns, and appliance casings. Bakelite was also very commonly used in making molded grip panels (stocks) on handguns, submachine guns and machineguns, as well as numerous knife handles and "scales" through the first half of the 20th century.
  Beginning in the 1920s, it became a popular material for jewelry. Designer Coco Chanel included Bakelite bracelets in her costume jewelry collections.  Designers such as Elsa Schiaparelli used it for jewelry and also for specially designed dress buttons. Later, Diana Vreeland, editor of Vogue, was enthusiastic about Bakelite. Bakelite was also used to make presentation boxes for Breitling watches. Jewelry designers such as Jorge Caicedo Montes De Oca still use vintage Bakelite materials to make designer jewelry.
  By 1930, designer Paul T. Frankl considered Bakelite a "Materia Nova", "expressive of our own age". By the 1930s, Bakelite was used for game pieces like chessmen, poker chips, dominoes and mahjong sets. Kitchenware made with Bakelite, including canisters and tableware, was promoted for its resistance to heat and to chipping. In the mid-1930s, Northland marketed a line of skis with a black "Ebonite" base, a coating of Bakelite. By 1935, it was used in solid-body electric guitars. Performers such as Jerry Byrd loved the tone of Bakelite guitars but found them difficult to keep in tune.
  The British children's construction toy Bayko, launched in 1933, originally used Bakelite for many of its parts, and took its name from the material.
  During World War II, Bakelite was used in a variety of wartime equipment including pilot's goggles and field telephones. It was also used for patriotic wartime jewelry. In 1943, the thermosetting phenolic resin was even considered for the manufacture of coins, due to a shortage of traditional material. Bakelite and other non-metal materials were tested for usage for the one cent coin in the US before the Mint settled on zinc-coated steel.
  During World War II, Bakelite buttons were part of the British uniforms. They were sometimes modified to Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape purposes in case of capture. "Following the introduction of BD (Battle Dress). MI9 was forced to adapt to meet the challenge of a number of different compass solutions were devised, both covert and overt. These included Bakelite buttons used in both Army (brown colored) and RAF (black) BD uniforms."
  In 1947, Dutch art forger Han van Meegeren was convicted of forgery, after chemist and curator Paul 
caption: Old tumbler switch composed of Bakelite
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