Background and aims
The Master’s thesis studies the invention of Bakelite and the way it ushered in the “plastic age.” On 13 July 1907 Leo Hendrik Baekeland filed a patent for the first fully synthetic plastic. The patent, which described how phenol could be condensed with formaldehyde under heat and pressure, is considered a milestone because it marked the transition from natural or semi‑synthetic materials (such as celluloid or collodion) to purely synthetic polymers. The thesis sets out to reconstruct the circumstances that enabled the son of a poor Belgian shoemaker to develop a material that has shaped everyday life ever since.
The term
Kunststoff and the context for plastics
Whereas the word “plastic” in English and other languages derives from the material’s mouldability, the German term Kunststoff (literally “artificial material”) was coined around 1910 by the chemist Ernst R. Escales, the founder of the journal Kunststoffe. Escales wanted a name for materials made exclusively from artificial raw materials such as phenol and formaldehyde; the term quickly became a hallmark of the emerging plastics industry. For a long time Germans also spoke of plastische Massen (“plastic masses”) or used names like Kunstseide (rayon) or Kunstharz (synthetic resin), but after the Second World War “Kunststoff” became the general term. The thesis emphasises that the semantic shift from Kunst (art, artificial) to Kunststoff reflects a wider societal acceptance of synthetic materials, particularly after the 1950s economic boom.
What is Bakelite? Chemistry, raw materials and technology
Raw materials and resin types
Bakelite is a phenolic resin formed by the condensation of phenol (or its homologues such as cresol) with formaldehyde. Phenol was originally a by‑product of coal‑tar distillation, considered an unwanted waste of the coke industry. Formaldehyde is a simple aldehyde, obtained from the oxidation of methanol. Baekeland experimented with both acid‑catalysed and base‑catalysed condensation and introduced names for the different reaction products: Novolak (thermoplastic phenol–formaldehyde resins) and resol/Bakelite A, B and C (heat‑hardening resins). In today’s terminology, resol is the A‑stage resin, resitol the B‑stage and resit the fully cured, cross‑linked C‑stage resin. Bakelite in its C‑state is hard, insoluble and infusible, with excellent mechanical strength and chemical resistance, properties that Baekeland initially could not fully explain.
Technology of manufacture
The thesis describes how Baekeland improved earlier phenol‑formaldehyde reactions by controlling the temperature, pressure and phenol-to-formaldehyde ratio. Previous researchers had tried to suppress gas formation; Baekeland instead accelerated it and contained it inside a pressure vessel he called the Baekelizer. By heating the reactants to 160–180 °C under pressure, he obtained a viscous resin that could be moulded and, on further heating, cured into a hard, insoluble mass. Three processing stages are distinguished:
- A‑stage (resol) – low‑molecular resin, liquid or fusible, soluble in alcohol and acetone; used to impregnate wood or paper before curing.
- B‑stage (resitol) – intermediate resin that is moldable under heat but only partially soluble; present in moulding compounds.
- C‑stage (resit/Bakelite C) – fully cross‑linked resin; hard, heat‑resistant, electrically insulating and chemically inert.
Filler materials (wood flour, asbestos, glass fibres, cotton flock etc.) were mixed with resol resin to create moulding compounds. These powders were pressed under heat to form parts, removed from the mould in the B‑stage, and finally cured to C‑stage in the Baekelizer.
Baekeland’s path to Bakelite
Education, early career and photographic inventions
Baekeland (born in Ghent, 1863) grew up in poverty but earned scholarships through academic excellence. Fascinated by photography, he improved photographic dry plates and in 1892 invented Velox, a photographic paper that could be developed under artificial light. The product met the needs of the growing amateur‑photography market and attracted George Eastman’s attention. In 1899 Baekeland sold the Nepera Chemical Co. and the Velox patents to Eastman Kodak for an estimated $750 000. This sale made him financially independent and allowed him to equip a private laboratory at his home “Snug Rock” on the Hudson River.
Electrochemistry and the move toward polymer research
Between 1900 and 1902 Baekeland studied electrical engineering in Berlin and became fascinated with electrochemistry. He collaborated with the Hooker Electrochemical Company on improvements to the Townsend chlor‑alkali process, receiving several patents. By 1904 he was seeking a new field of research. His laboratory notebooks show that around 1905 he turned to phenols and aldehydes, aware of earlier work by Adolf von Baeyer, Kleeberg and Luft on phenolic resins. It took him two years to master the exothermic reaction and find controllable conditions. On 20 June 1907 he produced 180 litres of resin in his pressure kettle “Old Faithful,” which marked the breakthrough.
Publication and the strategic
Chemiker‑Zeitung
articles
Baekeland understood that his invention needed industrial partners. He published a detailed four‑part article in the German journal Chemiker‑Zeitung in 1909, deliberately aimed at German coal‑tar and electrical firms. The article described unsuccessful attempts by competitors and then his own method, demonstrating the novelty of his pressure‑controlled condensation. Shortly afterwards he presented his work at the New York Chemists’ Club under the title “The Synthesis, Constitution and Uses of Bakelite,” which drew wide attention. However, it was not until he allied himself with the German Rütgers‑Werke—a company experienced in coal‑tar distillation—that large‑scale production became possible.
Industrialisation and patent disputes
Cooperation with the Rütgers‑Werke
While visiting Berlin in mid‑1909, Baekeland convinced Rütgers’ director Sally Segall to acquire the Bakelite patents for Continental Europe. The Bakelite Gesellschaft mbH was founded in Erkner near Berlin in 1910, jointly owned by Rütgers and Baekeland. The first Baekelizers were installed in a converted shed, and by late 1909 the company was supplying the regional electrical industry. Within a few years Bakelite was being produced at dedicated plants and used in switches, plugs, distributor caps, telephone housings, radio cabinets, and countless household items. During the 1930s the Erkner works became Europe’s largest producer of phenolic moulding compounds and continued operating (despite wartime destruction and later nationalisation in the GDR) until the 1990s.
Patent battles and the Bakelite Corporation
Bakelite’s commercial success spawned numerous imitators. German chemist Hans Lebach filed patents for “Resit,” and in the U.S. Jonas Aylsworth (Condensite) and Leo V. Redman (Redmanol) claimed similar processes. Baekeland defended his priority vigorously, arguing that the competitors’ products were either novolaks requiring pressure for curing or used reagents he had already patented. Ultimately the courts sided with Baekeland; the rival firms paid licences or merged. In 1922 Condensite, Redmanol and the General Bakelite Co. were folded into the Bakelite Corporation, with Baekeland as president. This consolidation allowed coordinated marketing and quality improvements, and the company thrived during the 1920s and 1930s.
Later history
The thesis traces Bakelite production through the upheavals of the Second World War and the Cold War. In the West, the business relocated to Munich‑Pasing and later Lethmathe and diversified into phenolic and epoxy resins. The company became part of Hexion Specialty Chemicals in the early 2000s. In East Germany the Plasta Erkner plant continued to make phenolic moulding compounds (notably for the Trabant car’s duroplast body) and imitated Western innovations. After German reunification, the site was privatised and eventually closed. The report also notes how the patent for Bakelite expired in 1927, leading to hundreds of moulding‑compound factories in Germany alone.
Bakelite’s applications and cultural impact
A material with “a thousand uses”
Bakelite’s properties—hardness, dimensional stability, electrical and thermal insulation, and resistance to moisture, acids and alkalis—made it ideal for a vast array of products. An early article in Kunststoffe emphasised that Bakelite C formed a hard mass that could not be scratched by a fingernail, did not conduct electricity, resisted heat up to 300 °C and was unaffected by dilute acids and bases. It could also be made transparent or coloured and processed on lathes like horn or amber. The article listed applications ranging from pipe mouthpieces, umbrella handles and buttons to impregnated wood that became harder than mahogany, varnishes for metal fixtures and coatings for lamps, and as a binder for abrasives and brake linings. These technical notes were likely written by Rütgers’ chemist Adolf Weger to publicise the product’s versatility.
Industry, transportation and design
Bakelite was adopted enthusiastically by the electrical industry. Its ability to insulate wires and components cheaply coincided with rapid electrification in the 1920s. Before Bakelite, insulation relied on rubber, shellac, porcelain or wood; these were unsafe or unsuitable for high voltages. The thesis argues that Bakelite made possible the mass production of switches, sockets, circuit breakers and other electrical hardware. It also entered the automotive and rail industries as a material for distributor caps, ignition coils, steering wheels and insulating parts in electric trains and trams. Paints and enamels modified with phenolic resins were more durable and corrosion‑resistant. Laminated phenolic sheets served as strong, heat‑resistant structural materials.
The advent of Bakelite transformed the telephone and radio industries. Early telephones were expensive wooden devices; by moulding housings from Bakelite, manufacturers cut production costs by ~30 % and made designs more compact. Standardised Bakelite telephones appeared in the Netherlands and Britain in the early 1930s, and industrial designers like Henry Dreyfuss created streamlined models that became iconic. Similarly radio cabinets were initially wooden and labour‑intensive; phenolic moulding allowed firms to produce hundreds of thousands of sets per year, meeting exploding demand during the 1920s and 1930s. The thesis links these developments to the birth of an information age: mass‑produced telephones and radios enabled rapid communication and cultural exchange and depended on the availability of cheap, safe insulating plastics.
Art Deco and fashion
From the mid‑1920s through the 1950s Bakelite objects were associated with modernity and the Art Deco movement. The material’s ability to take on vivid colours and glossy finishes made it popular for jewellery, chess pieces, radios and kitchenware. Designers from the Deutscher Werkbund embraced the functionalist aesthetic in which form followed function, and even fashion designers like Coco Chanel used coloured Bakelite for costume jewellery. The thesis stresses that these cultural trends would have been unthinkable without Baekeland’s invention.
The thesis: Bakelite as the start of both the plastic age and the information age
In its concluding chapter the thesis argues that Bakelite did more than inaugurate the plastics industry: it provided the material foundation for the second industrial revolution and the information age. As an electrical insulator it enabled rapid expansion of power grids and telephone networks, illustrated by Berlin’s electrification rate rising from 6.6 % of households in 1918 to more than 76 % by 1933. Mass‑production techniques developed for Bakelite moulding helped to create an affordable consumer culture during the economic turmoil of the 1930s. The widespread use of synthetic plastics also reshaped domestic labour by introducing electrical appliances that reduced manual work. The thesis concludes that Baekeland’s combination of empirical experimentation, business acumen and persistence allowed him to turn an unwanted waste (phenol) and a cheap chemical (formaldehyde) into a product with far‑reaching technological, economic and social consequences.
This summary is based on the 2014 Master’s thesis “Leo Baekeland und der Beginn des Kunststoffzeitalters” and cites selected pages for key evidence.
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