All Things Bakelite - The Filmmakers Hugh Karraker, Executive Producer Hugh Karraker is Executive Producer of the documentary film, All Things Bakelite. He is a great grandson of Leo H. Baekeland, the Belgian-born American who invented Velox photographic paper and created the first wholly synthetic plastic, Bakelite. Hugh is co-founder of The L.H. Baekeland Project, LLC, which through world-wide exhibitions, presentations, and media, promotes the history, the science and the art of Bakelite, and celebrates the life and achievements his great grandfather. For 30 years, Hugh was a successful actor in New York and Los Angeles, working in theater, motion pictures, television and print. He earned a BFA in acting at the University of Connecticut, studied in London at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and later co-founded the Magic Circle Theater in Chicago. Now retired from acting and devoted to his Baekeland Project, Hugh lives in CT with his actress wife, Sherry Arell Karraker, where he finds a creative outlet in building rustic furniture, gates and fences on commission. John Maher, Director As a cinematic artist, John Maher is the true definition of a Renaissance man.

His interest and knowledge in a broad range of subjects is only matched by his expertise in the specialized skills of filmmaking. His just-released film, All Things Bakelite, about Leo H. Baekeland, the “father of modern plastics”, exemplifies how John pushes the boundaries of the documentary form with a masterful blend of factual information, entertainment, and innovative production techniques to tell a little known, but compelling story. “I believe production choices have to serve the story first,” John says. “Because of its broad scope and rich content, we created a lot of little surprises in All Things Bakelite that help engage the audience.” All Things Bakelite is the fifteenth independent film that John’s company JEM Films has produced. Executive producer Hugh Karraker first brought the idea to John and together they collected the resources and shaped the story of Baekeland and his transformative invention. Craig Mikhitarian, Editor Craig brings over thirty years of production experience to All Things Bakelite, and a long association with filmmaker John Maher. Craig, partnered with his brother Bud, has been making movies nearly all his life and is accomplished in all phases of production, from the creative to the technical.

As a writer, producer, director, as well as a cinematographer and editor, Craig’s work has earned many awards in television, film, news and business. They include Emmy honors and an Oscar nomination for documentaries, and Telly Awards for commercials. While John Maher has joined Craig and Bud on many of their productions, Craig has also worked with John on several of his previous films, including John’s award-winning documentary Throw It Down, A Georgetown Story and Vision of Iron. Craig has been a part of All Things Bakelite since 2010, when John first brought him in on the project to consult, shoot and, primarily, edit the film. Craig lives in Ridgefield with his wife Dana and has two children, both wisely occupied well outside of show business. Martin J. Fegy, Music Composer Marty Fegy is a video producer as well as a composer of music for film and television. All Things Bakelite is his fourth film score for John Maher and JEM Films. He has also created sound design for numerous regional theatrical productions and has written and produced many jingles for radio and television advertisers.

How Bakelite started (Based on extracts from Wikipedia) One of the first plastics made from synthetic components, Bakelite was used for its electrical Non-conductivity and heat-resistant properties in electrical insulators, radio and telephone casings, and such diverse products as kitchenware, jewellery, pipe stems, firearms children's toys and of course door furniture. The "retro" appeal of old Bakelite products has made them collectible. History Baekland was already wealthy, due to his invention of Velux photographic paper, when he began to investigate the reactions of phenol and formaldehyde in his home laboratory. Chemists had begun to recognise that many natural resins and fibres were polymers. Baekland's initial intent was to find a replacement for shellac, a material that was in limited supply because it was made naturally from the excretion of lac bugs. Baekeland produced a soluble phenol-formaldehyde shellac called "Novolak, but it was not a market success. Synthesis Bakelite is a combination of phenol and formaldehyde, with wood flour as a filler. The mixture is put under pressure and after curing, a hard plastic material forms. Making Bakelite was a multi-stage process.

It began with the heating of phenol and formaldehyde in the presence of a catalyst such as hydrochloric acid, zinc chloride, or the base ammonia. This created a "liquid condensation product", referred to as "Bakelite A", which was soluble in alcohol, acetone, or added phenol. Heated further, the product became partially soluble and could still be softened by heat. Even more heating resulted in an "insoluble hard gum". However, the high temperatures required to create this tended to cause violent foaming of the mixture, which resulted in the cooled material being porous and breakable. Baekeland's innovative step was to put his "last condensation product" into an egg-shaped "Bakelizer". By heating it under pressure, at about 150 °C., Baekeland was able to suppress the foaming that would otherwise occur. The resulting substance was extremely hard and both infusible and insoluble. Compression Moulding Powdered "Bakelite A" could be combined with wood flour and moulded in hydraulic presses to create solid objects. Bakelite acted as a binder, surrounding the filler, and solidifying with a smooth finish.

Bakelite's moulding process had a number of advantages. Bakelite resin could be provided either as powder, or as preformed partially cured slugs, increasing the speed of the casting. Thermosetting resins such as Bakelite required heat and pressure during the moulding cycle, but could be removed from the moulding process without being cooled, again making the moulding process faster. Also, because of the smooth polished surface that resulted, Bakelite objects required less finishing. One of the first Bakelite moulded products, produced by the Boonton Rubber Company, was a tiny bushing, the size of a mustard seed, created for Weston Electric in 1908. Millions of parts could be duplicated quickly and relatively cheaply. Bakelite is a registered trademark of Hexion Specialty Chemicals AG Leo Hendrik Baekeland, inventor of the first true plastic, as one of the century greatest chemists Leo Hendrik Baekeland, inventor of the first true plastic, as one of the century greatest ...

In the opening scene of 'The Graduate', Benjamin Braddock (played by a young Dustin Hoffman) is awkwardly working an affluent Southern California crowd at a graduation party arranged for him by his parents when a family friend offers one of the century's most famous pieces of cinematic advice: "I just want to say one word to you. Just one word: Plastics." Millions of moviegoers winked and smiled. The scene, neatly captured their own late-'60s ambivalence toward the ever more synthetic landscape of their times. They loved their cheap, easy-to-clean Formica countertops, but envied and longed for the authentic touch and timelessness of marble and wood. The chord struck by that line in 'The Graduate' underscored how much had happened in the six decades since the summer of 1907, when Leo Hendrik Baekeland made the laboratory breakthrough that would change the stuff our world is made of. A Belgian-born chemist-entrepreneur, Baekeland had a knack for spotting profitable opportunities. He scored his first success in the 1890s with his invention of Velox, an improved photographic paper that freed photographers from having to use sunlight for developing images.

With Velox, they could rely on artificial light, which at the time usually meant gaslight but soon came to mean electric. It was a far more dependable and convenient way to work. In 1899 George Eastman, whose cameras and developing services would make photography a household activity, bought full rights to Velox for the then astonishing sum of $1 million. With that windfall, Baekeland, his wife Celine (known as "Bonbon") and two children moved to Snug Rock, a palatial estate north of Yonkers, N.Y., overlooking the Hudson River. There, in a barn he converted into a lab, he began foraging for his next big hit. It wasn't long before the burgeoning electrical industry seemed to say just one word to him: insulators. The initial tease for Baekeland, "Doc Baekeland" to many, was the rising cost of shellac. For centuries, the resinous secretions that Laccifer lacca beetles deposited on trees had provided a cottage industry in southern Asia, where peasants heated and filtered it to produce a varnish for coating and preserving wood products. Shellac also happened to be an effective electrical insulator.

Early electrical workers used it as a coating to insulate coils, and molded it into stand-alone insulators by pressing together layers of shellac-impregnated paper. When electrification began in earnest in the first years of the century, demand for shellac soon outstripped supply. Baekeland recognized a killer ap when he saw one. If only he could come up with a synthetic substitute for shellac. Others nearly beat him to it. As early as 1872, German chemist Adolf von Baeyer was investigating the recalcitrant residue that gathered in the bottom of glassware that had been host to reactions between phenol (a turpentine-like solvent distilled from coal tar, which the gas-lighting industry produced in bulk) and formaldehyde (an embalming fluid distilled from wood alcohol). Von Baeyer set his sights on new synthetic dyes, however, not insulators. To him, the ugly, insoluble gunk in his glassware was a sign of a dead end. To Baekeland and others aiming to find commercial opportunities in the nascent electrical industry, that gunk was a signpost pointing toward something great.

The challenge for Baekeland and his rivals was to find some set of conditions--some slippery ratio of ingredients and heat and pressure--that would yield a more workable, shellac-like substance. Ideally it would be something that would dissolve in solvents to make insulating varnishes and yet be as moldable as rubber. Starting around 1904, Baekeland and an assistant began their search. Three years later, after filling laboratory books with page after page of failed experiments, Baekeland finally developed a material that he dubbed in his notebooks "Bakelite." The key turned out to be his "bakelizer," a heavy iron vessel that was part pressure cooker and part basement boiler. With it, he was able to control the formaldehyde-phenol reaction with more finesse than had anyone before him. Initial heating of the phenol and formaldehyde (in the presence of an acid or base to get the reaction going) produced a shellac-like liquid good for coating surfaces like a varnish. Further heating turned the liquid into a pasty, gummier goo. And when Baekeland put this stuff into the bakelizer, he was rewarded with a hard, translucent, infinitely moldable substance.

In a word: Plastic. He filed patent applications and soon began leaking word of his invention to other chemists. In 1909 Baekeland unveiled the world's first fully synthetic plastic at a meeting of the New York chapter of the American Chemical Society. Would be customers discovered it could be fashioned into molded insulation, valve parts, pipe stems, billiard balls, knobs, buttons, knife handles and all types of items. It was 20th century alchemy. From something as vile as coal tar came a remarkably versatile substance. It wasn't the first plastic, however. Celluloid had been commercially available for decades as a substitute for tortoise-shell, horn, bone and other materials. But celluloid, which had developed a reputation as a cheap mimic of better traditional materials, was derived from chemically treated cotton and other cellulose-containing vegetable matter. Bakelite was lab-made through and through. It was 100% synthetic. Baekeland founded the General Bakelite Corp. to both make and license the manufacture of Bakelite.

Competitors soon marketed knockoffs, most notably Redmanol and Condensite, which Thomas Edison used in a failed attempt to dominate the nascent recording industry with 'unbreakable' phonograph disks. The presence of inauthentic Bakelite out there led to an early 20th century version of the 'Intel Inside' logo. Items made with the real thing carried a 'tag of genuineness' bearing the Bakelite name. Following drawn-out patent wars, Baekeland negotiated a merger with his rivals that put him at the helm of a veritable Bakelite empire. Bakelite became so visible in so many places that the company advertised it as 'the material of a thousand uses'. It became the stuff of everything from cigar holders and rosary beads to radio housings, distributor caps and telephone casings. A 1924 TIME cover story on Baekeland reported that those familiar with Bakelite's potential 'claim that in a few years it will be embodied in every mechanical facility of modern civilization'. In truth, Bakelite, whose more chemically formal name is polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride, was just a harbinger of the age of plastics.

Since Bakelite's heyday, researchers have churned out a polysyllabic catalog of plastics: polymethylmethacrylate (Plexiglas), polyesters, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride (PVC, a.k.a. vinyl), polyhexamethylene adipamide (the original nylon polymer), polytetraperfluoroethylene (Teflon), polyurethane, poly- this, poly-that. In 1945, a year after Baekeland died, annual plastic production in the U.S. reached more than 400,000 tons. In 1979, 12 years after 'The Graduate', the annual volume of plastic manufactured overtook that of steel, the symbol of the Industrial Revolution. Last year nearly 47 million tons of plastic were produced. Today plastic is nearly everywhere, from the fillings in our teeth to the chips in our computers (researchers are developing flexible transistors made of plastic instead of silicon so they can make marvels such as a flat-panel television screen that will roll like a scroll up your living-room wall).

Plastic may not be as vilified now as it was in 1967, but it's still a stuff that people love and hate. Every time a grocery clerk asks "Paper or plastic?", the great debate between old and new, natural and synthetic, biodegradable and not, silently unfolds in a shopper's breast in the instant it takes to decide on the answer. (Source:TIME Magazine) Bakelite First Synthetic Plastic - National Historic Chemical Landmark - American Chemical Society Bakelite: First Synthetic Plastic Leo Hendrick Baekeland and the Invention of Bakelite National Historic Chemical Landmark Commemorative Booklet (PDF) History is shaped by the materials we develop and use. For thousands of years, humans used stone to fashion tools. Some 5,000 years ago, we learned how to make alloys of copper, and the Bronze Age began. Centuries later the Iron Age introduced iron as the material of choice. The introduction of Bakelite—the world’s first synthetic plastic—in 1907 marked the introduction of the Polymer Age. Contents Cite this Page Age of Polymers and Plastics The Polymer Age is also called the Age of Plastics.

"Plastic" (from the Greek "plastikos," meaning moldable) is the popular term for a variety of synthetic, or manmade, polymers. Polymers ("poly" = many) are very large molecules—veritable giants in the molecular world—comprised of smaller molecules called monomers ("mono" = one). Most polymers—but not all—consist of monomers that are similar to each other, joined together in a straight chain, like a long string of pearls. Thousands of different polymers exist in nature. The most plentiful natural polymer in the world is cellulose, the major natural structural material of trees and other plants. The proteins that make up our bodies are polymers, including DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), the material that carries the genetic codes for all living creatures. Chemists did not fully understand or identify polymers until around 1900. But as early as 1861, the British chemist Thomas Graham had noted that when he dissolved organic compounds in solutions, some of them—cellulose, for instance—would not pass through even the finest filter paper without leaving sticky residues. Nor could these compounds be purified into a crystalline form. Dr.

Graham thought such substances represented an entirely different organization of matter. He called them "colloids," after "kolla," the Greek word for glue, another material that could not penetrate fine filters. Many 19th century manufacturers modified colloids and natural polymers to form new materials. In 1870, the American inventor John Wesley Hyatt used chemically modified cellulose to produce an astonishing new product called Celluloid, a plastic that was used for everything from hair combs to silent-movie film. By 1890, Count Hilaire de Chardonnet was marketing the first synthetic textile, Chardonnet silk, made by spinning strands of cellulose nitrate into artificial fiber. These and other early plastics were made from existing materials. The next step—the creation of completely synthetic plastic—was still to come. Back to top Man-made Polymers: Invention of Celluloid During the Victorian era, it was fashionable for wealthy gentlemen to own a billiard table and a set of billiard balls crafted of the finest and most perfect ivory. But 19th century hunters had virtually decimated the elephant herds of Africa and India, the source of ivory.

By 1863, the ivory shortage had become so critical that a New York billiard-ball manufacturer offered a $10,000 prize to the person who could create a useful substitute. The winners were John Wesley Hyatt, a young printer in Albany, New York, and his brother, Isaiah. They never received the money. But they did change history — by inventing celluloid, one of the world's first plastics. Celluloid not only resembled ivory, it had astonishing properties: at normal temperatures, it was a permanent, hard solid; when heated, it became soft and could be molded or rolled into sheets. It soon became the material of choice for billiard balls and dozens of other products. The Hyatts made celluloid by applying heat and pressure to a mix of cellulose nitrate and camphor; it was thus a plastic made by modifying natural materials. More than 40 years were to pass before the invention of the first wholly synthetic plastic. “The Bakelizer” commemorative booklet produced by the National Historic Chemical Landmarks program of the American Chemical Society in 1993 (PDF).

Leo Baekeland and the Invention of Bakelite By 1899, the invention of Velox photographic paper had already made Leo Baekeland a wealthy man. At his Snug Rock estate in Yonkers, New York, he maintained a home laboratory where he and his assistant, Nathaniel Thurlow, involved themselves in a variety of projects. Like other scientists of their day, Baekeland and Thurlow understood the potential of phenol-formaldehyde resins. The chemical literature included reports written decades earlier by the German chemist Adolf von Baeyer and by his student, Werner Kleeberg. Von Baeyer had reported that when he mixed phenol, a common disinfectant, with formaldehyde, it formed a hard, insoluble material that ruined his laboratory equipment, because once formed, it could not be removed. Kleeburg reported a similar experience, describing the substance he produced as a hard amorphous mass, infusible and insoluble and thus of little use. In 1902, German chemist Adolf Luft patented a resin made by modifying Kleeburg's composition in the hope that it could compete commercially with celluloid.

At least seven other scientists tried phenol and formaldehyde combinations in their attempt to create a commercially viable plastic molding compound. But no one was able to create a useful product. Hoping to capitalize on shortages of naturally occurring shellac—used to insulate electrical cables in the early years of the 20th century—Baekeland and Thurlow, as well as several other investigators, were experimenting with soluble resins. (Shellac was made from a resin secreted by the East Asian lac bug; it was harvested by the labor-intensive process of scraping the hardened deposits from the trees these insects inhabited.) Eventually, they developed a phenol-formaldehyde shellac called Novolak, but it was not a commercial success. By the early summer of 1907, Baekeland changed his focus from trying to create a wood coating to trying to strengthen wood by actually impregnating it with a synthetic resin. On June 18, 1907, Baekeland began a new laboratory notebook (now in the Archives Center of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History) documenting the results of tests in which he applied a phenol and formaldehyde mixture to various pieces of wood.

An entry made the following day states: All these tests were conducted in concentrated horizontal digester and the apparatus was reasonably tight. Yet the surface of the blocks of wood does not feel hard although a small part of gum that has oozed out is very hard. I began to think that the formaldehyde evaporates before it can act and that the proper way would be to impregnate with the viscous liquid which is obtained by boiling CH2O+C6H5OH together without a catalytic agent. In order to determine in how far this is possible I have heated in sealed tubes a portion of this liquid so as to determine whether there is a further separation of H2O or whether this is simply a solution of the hard gum in excess of phenol, then by simple open air evaporation I shall be able to accomplish hardening while I shall not succeed in closed sealed tubes. I have also heated an open tube rammed with a mixture of asbestos fiber and liquid. Also a sealed tube rammed with mixture of asbestos fiber and liquid. Everything heated 4 hours at 140° C -159° C. The notebook description of the last experiment of that day states: Asbestos + A in sealed tube.

I found tube broken perhaps in irregular expansion but the reactions seems to have been satisfactory because the resulting stick was very hard and below where there was some unmixed liquid A there was an end (?) of solidified matter yellowish and hard and entirely similar to the product obtained by simply heating A alone in sealed tube. This looks promising and it will be worth while to determine in how far this mass which I will call D is able to make moulded materials either alone or in conjunctions with other solid materials as for instance asbestos, casein, zinc oxid (sic), starch, different inorganic powders and lamp black and thus make a substitute for celluloid and for hard rubber. A day later, Baekeland listed four different products, designated A, B, C, and D. Substance D was "insoluble in all solvents, does not soften. I call it Bakalite (sic) and it is obtained by heating A or B or C in closed vessels." Baekeland later decided that "C" and "D" were equivalent. The key to reaching the final product "C" from "A" or "B" were machines that subjected earlier stages to heat and pressure.

Baekeland called these machines "Bakelizers." Baekeland made the first public announcement of his invention on February 8, 1909, in a lecture before the New York section of the American Chemical Society. Previous reactions had resulted in slow processes and brittle products, he said; then he continued "...by the use of small amounts of bases, I have succeeded in preparing a solid initial condensation product, the properties of which simplify enormously all molding operations..." Baekeland's first patent in the field had been granted in 1906; in all, he took out more than 400 patents related to the manufacture and applications of Bakelite. He started semi-commercial production in his laboratory and, in 1910, when daily output had reached 180 liters, (most of it for electrical insulators), he formed a U.S. company to manufacture and market his new industrial material. By 1930, the Bakelite Corporation occupied a 128-acre plant at Bound Brook, New Jersey. Back to top Properties and Uses of Bakelite Bakelite can be molded, and in this regard was better than celluloid and also less expensive to make.

Moreover, it could be molded very quickly, an enormous advantage in mass production processes where many identical units were produced one after the other. Bakelite is a thermosetting resin—that is, once molded, it retains its shape even if heated or subjected to various solvents. Bakelite was also particularly suitable for the emerging electrical and automobile industries because of its extraordinarily high resistance (not only to electricity, but to heat and chemical action as well). It was soon used for all non-conducting parts of radios and other electrical devices, such as bases and sockets for light bulbs and electron tubes, supports for any type of electrical components, automobile distributor caps and other insulators. Along with its electrical uses, molded Bakelite found a place in almost every area of modern life. From novelty jewelry and iron handles to telephones and washing-machines impellers, Bakelite was seen everywhere and was a constant presence in the technological infrastructure. The Bakelite Corporation adopted as its logo the mathematical symbol for infinity and the slogan, "The Material of a Thousand Uses," but they recognized no boundaries for their material. The Achilles heel was color. The pure Bakelite resin was lovely amber, and it could take other colors as well.

Unfortunately, it was quite brittle and had to be strengthened by "filling" with other substances, usually cellulose in the form of sawdust. After filling, all colors came out opaque at best and often dull and muddy. Ultimately, Bakelite was replaced by other plastics that shared its desirable qualities, but could also take bright colors. Today, only one or two firms now make phenolic resins, but Baekeland's creation set the mold for the modern plastics industry. Back to top Plastic: Material of Today Today, synthetic plastics are everywhere. They are as familiar to us as wood or metal, and are easily taken for granted. Almost anyone can name a dozen familiar products made in part or in whole with plastic: toys, computers, clothing, sports equipment, carpet, appliances, building materials, signs, office supplies, packaging, phones and fashion accessories. But some are less visible: Medical equipment—from hip-joint replacements and pacemakers to contact lenses and surgical tools—are made using (wholly or partly) synthetic materials. Dr. Baekeland's new material opened the door to the Age of Plastics and seeded the growth of a worldwide industry that today employs more than 60 million people.

As the future unfolds, plastics and other synthetic polymers will play increasingly versatile roles in medicine, electronics, aerospace and advanced structural composites. New products will be manufactured and molded all over the world—in complex processes that began with Leo Baekeland, an idea, and the Bakelizer. Leo Hendrick Baekeland (1863-1944). Courtesy The Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Collection, The University of Pennsylvania Libraries. The Bakelizer, a steam pressure vessel used by Leo Hendrik Baekeland to commercialize his discovery of Bakelite - the world's first completely synthetic plastic. Courtesy Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Biography of Leo Hendrick Baekeland (1863-1944) Like many of the people who have made important contributions to American life, Leo Hendrik Baekeland was an immigrant. He was born in Belgium, in the Flemish city of Ghent, on November 14, 1863. His father, a cobbler, opposed his son's wish for an education and apprenticed him at age 13 to a shoemaker.

Fortunately, Baekeland's mother, a domestic servant, insisted that he also be allowed to attend a government high school. It was there that Baekeland's lifelong commitment to chemistry began. Soon young Leo had also enrolled in night classes in chemistry, mechanics and photography, paying his way by working as a pharmacist's assistant. In 1880, he used a city scholarship to enter the University of Ghent—the same university at which, only 15 years earlier, August Kekule had described the benzene ring, a discovery that became the cornerstone of modern organic chemistry. Baekeland had a powerful mentor at Ghent, Kekule's former student, Theodore Swarts. Swarts guided Baekeland through his student years and beyond. By 1887, when the university appointed Baekeland assistant professor of chemistry, Swarts saw it as the start of an illustrious academic career. But Baekeland found himself less interested in pure chemistry than in its potential applications, and the two men often quarreled.

Whether intentionally or not, Baekeland settled the argument for good a year later when, at 26, he married Swarts' daughter, Celine, and, two days afterward they left for the United States. The newlyweds' trip to America was financed with a traveling fellowship he had received for academic study abroad. But Baekeland never returned to pure chemistry, or to his roots in Belgium. By 1897, he was a citizen of a new and exciting country, and a visible part of a fledgling chemical industry. He settled in New York City, where the patronage of Columbia University professor Charles F. Chandler led him to a position at a local photographic supply company. This led in turn to his first major successful invention, Velox, a new type of photographic paper that would take images using artificial light. When George Eastman bought the rights to Velox in 1899, Baekeland became financially free to follow whatever scientific pursuits appealed to him. Like most immigrants of his day, he wished to be wholly American.

He named his son after George Washington, worked hard to overcome his Belgian accent, and—in his personal diaries, at least—expressed a firm belief that America and Americans were superior to all things European. His professional and personal enthusiasm varied widely. Scholars say his diaries show a man who was fascinated by the potential of chemistry, but unwilling to get mired down for long in any one project. He enjoyed his prosperity by buying two estates—one overlooking the Hudson, north of Yonkers, New York, and a second in Florida—and a yacht which he christened the "Ion." An avid motorist even before automobiles were safe, he toured Europe by car with his family as early as 1907 and spent hours tinkering with car motors. And he was a public man: In World War I, Baekeland was appointed to the Nitrate Supply Commission and served as president of the committee on patents of the National Research Council. He served as president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the American Electrochemical Society and, in 1924, became the President of the American Chemical Society. Leo Hendrik Baekeland's life spanned an era of remarkable discovery and development.

Before his death in 1944, he had lived to see a panoply of new plastics and, with the advent of World War II, the explosive growth of the industry he had helped to establish. Coutesy Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Landmark Designation and Acknowledgments Landmark Designation The American Chemical Society designated Leo Hendrik Baekeland’s original Bakelizer as a National Historic Chemical Landmark at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., on November 9, 1993. The plaque commemorating the invention reads: The National Museum of American History houses the original Bakelizer, the steam pressure vessel used by chemist-entrepreneur Leo Hendrik Baekeland to commercialize his discovery of Bakelite - the world's first completely synthetic plastic. Phenol and formaldehyde reacted under pressure at high temperature in this sealed autoclave -known affectionately as 'Old Faithful' by early operators - to form the thermosetting resin Bakelite. Versatile and readily molded, Bakelite found wide use in the expanding consumer economy and opened the door to an era of synthetic materials.

Used by Baekeland around 1909, 'Old Faithful' was kept by the General Bakelite Corporation and its successor, Union Carbide Co., which donated it to the Smithsonian Institution in 1983. Constructed of iron alloys and still structurally sound, the Bakelizer is 35 inches wide, 40 inches deep, and nearly six feet tall. Acknowledgments Adapted for the internet from “The Bakelizer,” produced by the National Historic Chemical Landmarks program of the American Chemical Society in 1993. Cite this Page ACS Style American Chemical Society National Historic Chemical Landmarks. Bakelite: The World’s First Synthetic Plastic. (accessed Month Day, Year). Who Invented Bakelite Who Invented Bakelite 04 May, 2013 who invented 0 Bakelite, also known as polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride, is a plastic created by an elimination reaction of phenol and formaldehyde. It is made from synthetic components and was one of the first plastics to be made in this way. It was very popular after its invention and was used for many applications.

It was heat resistant and didn’t conduct electricity, which meant that it was commonly used for electrical insulators as well as telephone and radio casings. It was also a popular material for kitchenware, children’s toys, jewelry and much more. Bakelite is rarely used today because it is brittle and costs more to make than other plastics. However, products made from bakelite remain popular with collectors of retro items. Let’s find out who invented this type of plastic. Who invented bakelite? Bakelite was invented by Belgian born, American chemist, Dr. Leo Baekeland in 1907. Baekeland was working on a replacement for shellac, which was made from lac beetle excretion, and began experimenting the reactions between phenol and formaldehyde. He created a synthetic shellac known as “Novolak,” but it was a commercial failure. He began to work on a binding material for asbestos and it was during this work that he produced a hard moldable synthetic plastic. He patented his discovery in 1907 (it was granted in 1909) and named the product bakelite.

He called the product “the material of 1000 uses” and presented it to the American Chemical Society in 1909. The invention of this plastic is considered to be a key point in the development of the modern synthetic plastics that we take for granted today. Did you know? When asked why he began experimenting with synthetic resins Baekeland answered “to make money.” At the time of Baekeland’s death in 1944 bakelite was used in more than 15,000 different applications! Related Articles Plastics Containing Asbestos - Brands & Products Plastics Years Produced: 1907 – Present Plastics – new, moldable and inexpensive -were a huge fad product at the turn of the 20th century. This fascinating material could be colored and molded into all kinds of things, like chunky jewelry, machinery parts or fancy phones. It all started with Bakelite, Leo Baekeland’s innovative plastic molding compound. Unfortunately, some products made with this special compound contained a toxic material, asbestos. Asbestos worked as a reinforcing and fireproofing agent, strengthening and enhancing the material so that it would not break or burn.

Two major asbestos plastic materials sold during the 1900s were molding compounds and vinyl asbestos tile. As time and wear weakens these products, broken plastic can emit asbestos. Asbestos Use Banned: No Friable: No Major developments in plastic occurred around the early 1900s. Alexander Parkes invented one of the first plastic materials, known as Parkesine (and later was rebranded as Celluloid) in 1856. Parkes made several products, including billiard balls, from this early plastic product. The material was flawed because it was highly flammable. For example, billiard balls hitting against each other would reportedly cause little sparks on occasion. In 1907, a chemist named Leo Baekeland created a better plastic product known as Bakelite. Bakelite is a phenolic plastic, made from phenol-formaldehyde resin. It is a thermosetting plastic, which is molded while hot and sets when it cools. Baekeland found that adding fillers to the plastic molding compounds strengthened the material and kept it from cracking. Asbestos is one of the fillers he used. It not only prevented cracks, but could withstand heat, flames and electrical current.

Also, once the molded plastic cooled, the toxic mineral prevented the material from shrinking. Bakelite became popular throughout the 1900s. It's known as the first synthetic plastic and the material of a thousand uses. Using Bakelite, companies manufactured molded plastic products such as small machine pieces, road signs, telephones, steering wheels, buttons, pen casings, jewelry and electrical panels . Baekeland continued to experiment with plastic and created a new type of flooring, known as vinyl asbestos tile. The tile was a mixture of asbestos, binder, limestone, stabilizer, pigment and plasticizer. These tiles were used in supermarkets, department stores, kitchens, commercial plants and near entryways and elevators. Using asbestos prevented abrasion, indentation, cracking and damage from liquids and heat. Other companies followed Baekeland's lead of producing reinforced plastics with asbestos. This filler strengthened plastic products such as PVC (polyvinyl chloride polymer), phenolics, polypropylene and nylon. Chemists mixed asbestos fibers with plastic resin in four forms: compounds, woven mats in laminates, woven mats in mold processing and semi-cured woven mats.

Popular asbestos plastic materials include: Electrical cladding and switching Casings for switches and controllers Cement roofing High performance aerospace industry applications Arc chutes for motors and generators Missile casings While some asbestos plastic products are still manufactured, their popularity has greatly decreased. Studies as early as 1943 began to reveal that working with the toxic mineral causes lung problems. In the 1980s legislation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and restrictions from the Toxic Substances Control Act and the Clean Air Act limited usage. Companies began to replace the filler with talc, clay, Teflon, fibrous glass, porcelain, silica, carbon and Product X (a plastic substitute made by Raymark industries for military use). Dangers Asbestos plastic products undergoing wear, age and deterioration may release toxic particles. Constant use of car parts , switches, phones and other plastic molding products can cause plastic to break, potentially sending toxic dust into the air. Most of these plastic molding products contain 15 to 17 percent asbestos. Electricians conducting regular maintenance and repairs may disturb the plastic parts. Electricians drilling through electrical panels or vinyl wallpaper may fill the air with asbestos dust.

Asbestos plastic electrical components may also be in the vicinity of other asbestos construction products that further expose electricians to the dangerous mineral. Floor tillers working with asbestos-vinyl tiles are were put at risk. Cutting tiles before placing them can disturb ground asbestos that is mixed into tile compounds. Additionally, construction workers or demolition workers may come into contact with older tiles that are falling apart. These damaged tiles can release toxic dust into the air. Plastic plant factory workers preparing plastic molding compounds were surrounded by high concentrations of the deadly mineral. Factory workers would pour raw asbestos fibers into molds, then cut and transport materials. These workers were in danger of breathing asbestos dust and were especially at risk of developing related diseases later in life. Manufactures that made asbestos-containing plastics include: Greene, Tweed & Company Tile-Tex Company Lawsuits Two companies that encountered litigation from asbestos plastic flooring products include Armstrong World Industries and Kentile Floors. Today Armstrong is one the biggest manufacturers of hardwood flooring, but the products they made in the past have cost them millions. In 2006 they created a trust fund to pay damages to people who developed mesothelioma, lung cancer or asbestosis.

While Armstrong was able to recover from bankruptcy, Kentile Floors was not as successful. Kentile sold tiles and flooring products, with some products containing as much as 25 percent asbestos. The company filed for bankruptcy in 1992, but was unable to recover. Kentile officially shut down in 1998. Workers, like Wayne Bendily, developed asbestos-related illnesses from preparing asbestos plastic products. Bendily’s work involved mining, processing and manufacturing asbestos-containing insulation and plastic cement. In 1996, Bendily filed a lawsuit against multiple manufacturers, including the Flintkote Company, after Dr. Glenn Gomes diagnosed Bendily with asbestosis. Bendily accused the Flintkote Company of failing to warn about the risks of using their contaminated plastic cement. A judge awarded Bendily $780,000 in total damages. James Ginter worked for Durez Plastics creating asbestos friction products. Durez manufactured industrial resins and phenolic molding compounds. Ginter was exposed to asbestos when he used asbestos molding in friction testing machines. In 2010, doctors diagnosed him with mesothelioma.

A year later, a New York Jury awarded Ginter $2.5 million. Brands Brands of plastic products containing asbestos include: Dura PlasticTalcote

Question: In 1907 Belgian-born chemist Leo Baekeland created which type of plastic?
Answer: Bakelite