![]() Under director of advertising and public relations Allan Brown, who came to Bakelite from Condensite, Bakelite was aggressively marketed as "the material of a thousand uses". Aylesworth and the Redmanol Chemical Products Company, founded by Lawrence V. The Bakelite Corporation was formed in 1922 after patent litigation favorable to Baekeland, from a merger of three companies: Baekeland's General Bakelite Company the Condensite Company, founded by J. However, the demand for molded plastics led the company to concentrate on molding rather than cast solid resins. ![]() : 172–174 Blocks or rods of cast resin, also known as "artificial amber", were machined and carved to create items such as pipe stems, cigarette holders and jewelry. The Bakelite Company produced "transparent" cast resin (which did not include filler) for a small market during the 1910s and 1920s. company to manufacture and market his new industrial material, and made overseas connections to produce it in other countries. He formed the General Bakelite Company of Perth Amboy, NJ as a U.S. The subsidiary formed at that time, Bakelite AG, was the first to produce Bakelite on an industrial scale.īy 1910, Baekeland was producing enough material in the US to justify expansion. In the summer of 1909 he licensed the continental European rights to Rütger AG. The first semi-commercial Bakelizer, from Baekeland's laboratory, 1935īaekeland started semi-commercial production of his new material in his home laboratory, marketing it as a material for electrical insulators. He announced his invention at a meeting of the American Chemical Society on February 5, 1909. He also filed for patent protection in other countries, including Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, Russia and Spain. Bakelite, his "method of making insoluble products of phenol and formaldehyde," was filed on Jand granted on December 7, 1909. : 9īaekeland filed a substantial number of related patents. : 58–59 He considered the possibilities of using a wide variety of filling materials, including cotton, powdered bronze, and slate dust, but was most successful with wood and asbestos fibers, though asbestos was gradually abandoned by all manufacturers due to stricter environmental laws. It was the first synthetic thermosetting plastic produced, and Baekeland speculated on "the thousand and one. By controlling the pressure and temperature applied to phenol and formaldehyde, he produced a hard moldable material that he named Bakelite, after himself. He then began experimenting on strengthening wood by impregnating it with a synthetic resin rather than coating it. He produced a soluble phenol-formaldehyde shellac called " Novolak", but it was not a market success, even though it is still used to this day (e.g., as a photoresist). Baekeland's initial intent was to find a replacement for shellac, a material in limited supply because it was made naturally from the secretion of lac insects (specifically Kerria lacca). Chemists had begun to recognize that many natural resins and fibers were polymers. History īaekeland was already wealthy due to his invention of Velox photographic paper when he began to investigate the reactions of phenol and formaldehyde in his home laboratory. As the world's first commercial synthetic plastic, Bakelite was named a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society. Bakelite's commercial success inspired the industry to develop other synthetic plastics. The creation of a synthetic plastic was revolutionary for the chemical industry, which at the time made most of its income from cloth dyes and explosives. The " retro" appeal of old Bakelite products has made them collectible. It was used in electrical insulators, radio and telephone casings, and such diverse products as kitchenware, jewelry, pipe stems, children's toys, and firearms. Patent 942699A).īecause of its electrical nonconductivity and heat-resistant properties, it became a great commercial success. The first plastic made from synthetic components, it was developed by Leo Baekeland in Yonkers, New York in 1907, and patented on Decem( U.S. $(this).closest('#shortNewsletterFormConfigWrapper').find('.Bakelite ( / ˈ b eɪ k əl aɪ t/ BAY-kə-lyte), formally Polyoxybenzylmethyleneglycolanhydride, is a thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin, formed from a condensation reaction of phenol with formaldehyde.
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