The Father of Plastic

Many researchers helped give birth to plastics, but a Belgian-born chemist working in Yonkers, New York, earned naming rights by developing the first all-synthetic plastic.

Dr. Leo H. Baekeland began experimenting with phenol and formaldehyde and noticed that condensation produced a residue that couldn’t be removed from the test tubes. He tried to invent a shellac type solvent to remove the residue and succeeded in inventing a totally synthetic and thermal setting plastic that he named "Bakelite". The invention of Bakelite is considered the beginning of the Age of Plastics because it was the world’s first synthetic plastic. An article on Dr. Baekeland in Time magazine on May 20, 1940 is entitled, "Father of Plastic". If the invention of Bakelite is considered the beginning of the "Plastic Age" and Bakelite was invented in Yonkers, Yonkers is the "Home of the Plastic Age".

A patent for Bakelite was obtained in 1906, Bakelite resins were produced in 1907 and on February 8, 1909, in a speech delivered to the American Chemical Society, the discovery of Bakelite was formally announced.

In 1910 the General Bakelite Corporation, later the Bakelite Company, was founded and Dr. Baekeland served as president until it merged with the Union Carbide Corporation in 1939.

Bakelite, because it wouldn’t melt or soften, was used initially in the automobile and electrical industries and then was used for a wide assortment of items like airplane propellers, handles for kitchen utensils, pipe tobacco stems, pens, billiard balls, etc.

Excerpted from an article written by Tom Flynn on the Yonkers Historical Society website.

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