December 7, 1909: Leo Baekeland patents Bakelite, the 1st plastic made from synthetic components. The world will never be the same.
Leo Hendrik Baekeland was born on November 14, 1863 in Ghent, Belgium. In a 1936 interview with The Literary Digest, a popular magazine of the time, "The name is a Dutch word meaning 'Land of Beacons.'" He earned his Ph.D., maxima cum laude, from the Ghent University when he was only 21 years old. He taught physics and chemistry in Bruges, before Ghent University hired him in 1889.
A trip to the United States led him to invent Velox photographic paper in 1893. As important as that was, his 1907 invention of Bakelite, an inexpensive, non-flammable and versatile plastic, was a major step forward, marking the beginning of the modern plastics industry.
Bakelite, formally polyoxybenzylmethyleneglycolanhydride -- don't try it, trust me -- is a thermosetting resin, formed from a condensation reaction of phenol with formaldehyde. Baekeland developed it in his laboratory in Yonkers, just north of New York City, in 1907, and patented it on December 7, 1909.
It was one of the first plastic-like materials to be introduced into the modern world, and was popular because it could be molded and then hardened into any shape. Because of its electrical nonconductivity and heat-resistant properties, it became a great commercial success. It was used in electrical insulators, radio and telephone casings, and such diverse products as kitchenware, jewelry, pipe stems, children's toys, and firearms.
As Baekeland grew older he became more eccentric, entering fierce battles with his son and presumptive heir over salary and other issues. He sold the General Bakelite Company to Union Carbide in 1939 and retired. He became a recluse, eating all of his meals from cans and becoming obsessed with developing an immense tropical garden on his winter estate outside Miami. He died of a stroke, in a sanatorium in Beacon, New York, on February 23, 1944.
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December 7, 1909 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. Football season had just ended. And professional basketball and hockey barely existed. So there were no scores on this historic day.
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