Leo H. Baekeland
Bakelite Corporation
Inducted 1974
Leo Baekeland (born Leo Henricus Arthur Baekeland [1863 – 1944]) was a Belgian born American chemist whose invention of Bakelite, the first fully synthetic plastic, led to the creation of the modern plastics industry and a drastic transformation of the way material products were manufactured and marketed.
Baekeland was born and lived in Ghent, where he received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Ghent in 1882. Just two years later, he was awarded a doctorate of Natural Science, maxima cum laude, also from Ghent. Baekeland taught chemistry at the university and at the Normal School in Bruges until 1889, when he won first prize in a chemistry competition that included a travel scholarship. He used those funds to travel to the United States later that year.
Soon after arriving in the United States, Baekeland began researching photographic process chemicals, leading to his invention of Velox photographic paper in 1839. This photographic paper utilized a novel colloidal chloride of silver, enabling it to be exposed and developed rapidly and conveniently using artificial light. He founded the Nepera Chemical Co. to manufacture Velox, eventually selling the patent and manufacturing rights for Velox to the Eastman Kodak Company for a large sum of money.
Baekeland then returned to Europe to study electrochemistry at the Technological Institute at Charlottenburg, Germany. Returning to America, he built a private laboratory in the carriage house at his home along the Hudson river in Yonkers, New York, so he could continue his chemistry research. He began working with phenols and aldehydes in an effort to produce an artificial varnish. A 1906 experiment involving carbolic acid, phenol and formaldehyde, reacted under pressure (the key to this reaction) yielded a hard, insoluble, resin. Baekeland immediately saw its potential as a new material that could be formed into various products. The material was durable, lightweight, and an excellent electrical insulator. He called his new material Bakelite. He then formed the General Bakelite Company (later the Bakelite Corporation), took out patents, and began to produce the new material in a powder form suitable for compression molding, and as a liquid casting resin.
Bakelite was the first plastic invented that held its shape after being heated. Radios, telephones, and electrical items were made of Bakelite because of its electrical insulation and heat resistant properties. Its invention came at a critical time in history since it was the ideal material for motor and generator winding insulation at a time when the country was first establishing the electrical grid. Baekeland continued to direct his company until 1939, when it was sold to Union Carbide. By that time plastics had become an important part of American (and international) industry.
Baekeland also served in a variety of government and professional society capacities. During World War I, he was a member of the Naval Consulting Board and the Nitrate Supply Commission. In 1917 he was chairman of the committee on patents of the National Research Council. Over the years he served as; president of the American Chemical Society, president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and as president of the American Electrochemical Society. In his lifetime Dr. Baekeland received numerous prestigious awards from chemical and engineering organizations and universities. He was decorated as an officer of the Legion of Honor of France, the Order of the Crown of Belgium and he was a commander of the Order of Leopold.
Areas of Expertise:
Plastic materials, Business management
Related Links:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/baekeland_hi.html