When Leo Hendrik Baekeland invented Bakelite in 1907, he changed the world - ushering in the Age of Plastics and transforming the way people lived.
The phenolic resin took off first as a superior, easily moldable insulator against heat and electrical current, then as a key material in Art Deco design.
Bakelite was the first truly synthetic plastic, ``born of fire and mystery,'' as Time magazine put it. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Bakelite. Baekeland filed his famous ``heat and pressure'' patent on July 13, 1907. The U.S. patent was granted on Dec. 7, 1909.
Bakelite became an almost instant hit. Baekeland's phenol-formaldehyde came along just as America's electrical and automotive industries were beginning to take off. Manufacturers were starving for a better insulator that was easily moldable and inexpensive. Railways. Telephones. Iron ships. Aviation. Photography. All demanded a consistent, high-quality material that natural raw materials of the day could not provide.
Boonton Rubber Co. of Boonton, N.J., made the first commercial compression molded Bakelite product: bobbin ends.
Impervious to temperature, acids and moisture, Bakelite was nearly indestructible. It went on to replace rubber, shellac and gutta-percha as an insulator. Applications quickly followed in toasters, coffee makers, hair dryers, electric irons, vacuum cleaners, lamp sockets, headphones and more. Major automotive uses included distributor caps, radiator caps, instrument panels, door handles and those classic heavy-duty steering wheels molded from black and brown Bakelite.
Bakelite added a touch of style to radios and Parker pens - items that are valuable collectibles today.
Bakelite was not the first plastic. Depending on how liberally you define the word, animal bone could be a ``plastic,'' if softened and formed. Since the mid-1880s, some companies had used crude plunger-type presses to form shellac, as well as gutta-percha, into buttons, combs, jewelry and novelties.
And cellulose nitrate already was decades old by 1907. Englishman Alexander Parkes got the first patents on the material, which he called Parkesine, between 1855 and 1865, according to the book Plastics History - U.S.A. by J. Harry DuBois. In 1870, American inventor John Wesley Hyatt patented his material, Celluloid.
Parkesine Co. quickly went out of business. Celluloid won out.
But unlike Celluloid, Bakelite would not catch on fire or melt. And a safer version, cellulose acetate, was not on the market yet when Bakelite came out.
Plus, Bakelite was a thermoset, a plastic that once formed, cannot be melted again. That made it a durable material well-suited for insulating. Bakelite magneto couplings and other parts made the modern Delco car ignition system possible, relegating the old hand-crank to the history books.
Both of the early thermoplastics, cellulose nitrate and cellulose acetate, are considered semisynthetic plastics, or the ``natural plastics,'' because they used a natural material - wood pulp or cotton, modified with acids.
But Bakelite was 100 percent man-made. And the story of how a Belgium native came to invent it, in Yonkers, N.Y., combines elements of the U.S. story of immigration, dogged testing that finally leads to a breakthrough invention, and an entrepreneurial spirit.
He always wanted to make something useful.
Coming to America
Leo Baekeland was born into humble beginnings on Nov. 14, 1863, in Ghent, Belgium. His father, Karel, was a shoemaker. Young Leo was learning the cobbler trade, and his father opposed his wish for an education. But his mother, Rosalia, a domestic servant, had always considered him to be gifted, according to the book, They Made America, by Harold Evans. She got their son a scholarship to a government high school, where he excelled.
A childhood interest in photography got him interested in chemistry.
He went on to graduate with honors from Ghent University, studying under Professor Theodore Swarts. He fell in love with his mentor's daughter, Celine Swarts. After a short stint as a professor at another school, he returned to Ghent University to become a professor, do research, and be near Celine again.
Professor Swarts did not approve of their relationship. But Baekeland married Celine Swarts on Aug. 8, 1889. Two days later they set sail for New York on a combined honeymoon and study trip, financed though an academic fellowship.
He was a rising star of chemistry in Belgium, but Baekeland never looked back to his native land. Instead, he made his famous breakthroughs in the United States.
At Ghent, Baekeland would have had a secure career and support for his chemistry experiments. But America was the land where applied science and raw commerce could bring good ideas to the marketplace. And New York was its epicenter.
``He felt that the atmosphere over here was more conducive to his way of thinking and his innovative dreams of helping create something exciting in the world,'' said Hugh Karraker, Leo Baekeland's great-grandson. Karraker, of Redding, Conn., has dedicated himself to publicizing Baekeland's accomplishments in this 100th anniversary year.
Feeding off his love for photography, Baekeland first worked as a chemist in the photographic industry. A decade later, he was a partner in a company that invented Velox photo-printing paper. In 1899, George Eastman, whose Eastman Kodak Co. was bringing photography to the masses, bought Velox for $1 million.
Barely 36, Baekeland was a millionaire. He and his family moved to the Snug Rock estate overlooking the Hudson River in Yonkers. He never had to work again. Even so, an early retirement was the last thing on Baekeland's mind, according to his great-grandson. He used the money to finance independent research into one of his topics of study back in Ghent: the chemical reactions between phenols and formaldehydes.
``He was not a man to sit still,'' Karraker said. ``He was an avid inquisitor. He questioned everything and wanted to follow up on this search for this substitute for shellac.''
The master chemist also did not enjoy high-society life. ``He shunned all the trappings of wealth,'' Karraker said. ``His thought was the rich were idle and he didn't want to be idle. He had a strong opinion about anybody talking a lot about their money.''
Baekeland set up a small laboratory next to his home.