Jonas Aylsworth
Bakelite Corporation
Inducted 1996
An independent inventor and entrepreneur who worked with Thomas Edison, Jonas Aylsworth (1868 – 1916) pioneered the further development of phenolic plastics following Leo Baekeland’s first patent in 1909. He is credited with developing the first phenolic-based interpenetrating polymer network. Edison records used this material to manufacture all of its phonograph disks.
Aylsworth received approximately 100 patents, primarily in the area of phenolic material.
In 1910 he founded Condensite Company of America to produce compounds based on his technology that Leo Baekeland licensed. In 1922, the company was consolidated with others to form the Bakelite Corporation.
Born in Attica, Indiana, Aylsworth attended Purdue University for a year but left when his father died. He joined the Edison Laboratory in New Jersey in 1887. For the rest of his life, Aylsworth continued his association with Edison, even while working for other companies and operating businesses of his own. He did important work in developing phonograph records and, at one point, was chief chemist at the Edison Phonograph Works. Other than phonograph records, Condensite compounds were also molded into many other consumer and industrial products.
He and his wife Adelaide lived in East Orange, NJ, about a mile from the Edison laboratory in West Orange.
Areas of Expertise:
Plastics materials
Related Links:
http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/fountain/bios/aylswort760nbs.txt
http://www.nps.gov/edis/learn/kidsyouth/the-gifted-men-who-worked-for-edison.htm