Measuring cylinder

Leo Baekeland is famous worldwide as the inventor of Bakelite, the first entirely synthetic material. He was a Doctor of Natural Sciences and assistant to Théodore Swarts at the Laboratory for General Chemistry in Ghent. In 1889, he moved to the United [A1] States, where he set up a company in 1893 to develop and produce Velox photographic paper.

Bakelite was the very first plastic that was 100% synthetic. The plastic is made in the reaction between phenol (C2H5OH) and formaldehyde (CH2O), which is why it is also called a phenolic resin. Bakelite is resistant to heat and corrosive chemicals, but it is also brittle because the material is full of cavities. For this reason, a filler is added during the production process to fill the cavities.

Leo Baekeland mainly used his knowledge of chemistry to develop practical, tangible applications. Demand for electrical insulators rose in the second half of the 19th century. This inspired Baekeland to find a synthetic alternative for the expensive and relatively rare product shellac. Enter Bakelite!

Bakelite owed its enormous success to a combination of properties: it is chemically inert, an electrical insulator and heat resistant (up to more than 400°C). Furthermore, it was relatively simple and cheap to make, and this sent the number of industrial applications for Bakelite skyrocketing. Today, Bakelite is used in the automotive, metal, paper and aircraft industries. In fact, the screw tops on some perfume bottles and the handles of pans are still made from Bakelite.