The
Invention of Bakelite (aka Plastic)
Unit 4
- IP
Marshall
Copeland
Colorado
Technical University
Futuring
and Innovation (CS875)
Professor
Cynthia Calongne
Feb 12,
2023
Game-changing ideas that came from an error
or accident.
This class individual project is to explain how Bakelite
plastic was accidentally discovered by a Belgian chemist named Leo Hendrik Baekeland.
During the research, many early writings referend to Baekeland as the father of
the plastics industry. What is not as
widely known is the details of the accidental discovery of plastic, the early
uses of the product, and how it became a global pollutant product for planet
earth (Calvert, 2020).
Leo Hendrik Baekeland was born November 14, 1863, in Ghent, Belgium.
He acquired a Ph.D. at the early age of 21 from Ghent Municipal Technical
School and quickly became a well know chemist for inventions of Velox a
commercially successful form of photographic paper in 1893 (Cambridge
Dictionary, 2002). Baekeland was a
partner in the creation of a company titled Nepera Chemical Company that later sold
to Eastmond Kodak Co. Leo Baekeland signed a 20-year non-compete clause so he went
back to the Technical Institute in Germany for concentrated studies in
electrochemistry.
Once back in the United States, he began work as an
independent consultant to focus on other chemical-related projects. He did have
success with other projects and began to focus on synthetic resins or in informal
language, shellac, or glue. The goal for Leo Baekeland was to find a polymeric resin
using different combinations of phenols and formaldehyde. Leo created what he called a “black guck” which
he considered useless and irrelevant to his search for synthetic resins and
dyes. The end product could not be purified into a constant composition and
could not “do anything with it” once produced. Leo began to slowly combine phenol
and formaldehyde, applying different pressure and temperatures to produce a
moldable plastic he titled Bakelite.
The forces that supported the continued research and
expansion included the many uses of compression molding of plastic. Leo Baekeland officially announced the
product to the America Chemical Society in February 1909 and was granted a
patent in December of the same year (Cambridge Dictionary, 2002). This was the
first plastic invention that retained its shape after being produced from heating
and pressure molding for radios, telephones, and electrical insulators. The use of Bakelite plastic meant it was
heat-resistant for use in many forms of electrical industries. The beginning of
plastics’ wide range of use made it possible to be heated before the air was
injected into a mold or extruded out of a mold for a wide variety of products. Nearly
every industry of production began to use plastic products from heated
injection molding.
Leo Hendrik Baekeland received many awards and honors for
his plastic invention and by the time of his death in 1944, the world
production of Bakelite products reached 175,000 tones and was critically used
in over 15,000 individual products. Recognition was a form of success but was
overshadowed by the delivery of finances. In the nineteen seventies, Leo
Baekeland was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the
Plastics Hall of Fame (Smithers, 2020).
Additional pressures continued after Baekeland’s death with
the experimentation and expansions of his original formula. The global demand
continued for more lightweight, durable, and flexible, not to mention
inexpensive products. One of the questions asked is how much plastic is created
in the world currently. In 2020, 400 million tonnes of plastic were produced to
be incredibly harmful and hard to regulate in the United States alone,
(Smithers, 2020).
Another accidental discovery from Leo’s original product is
linked to the use of modern plastics that were created from current petroleum
fossil fuel chemicals, like natural gas and petroleum, more specifically crude
oil. A byproduct that the fossil fuel industry did not anticipate is another
chance discovery. Technically use Polyethylene Terephthalate or PET is used to
create, among other plastic products, water bottles. Another modern use of
plastic to the point of being banned in regions like Rohde Island is the overuse
of Plastic Bags (Touhey, 2019). The use of plastic bags is one of the greatest
threats to the natural marine environment and plastic product contributes to
marine debris. A greater focus today to counteract the harm of plastic is the
use of plant-based plastic alternatives (Yakabi, 2018).
Leo Hendrik Baekeland settled into a special appointment professorship
at Columbia University and created the General Bakelite Co. Other companies were merged, including the Redmanol
Chemical Products Company which accelerated the use of Bakelite plastics
products in his lifetime (Cambridge Dictionary, 2002). Because of the early use of plastic, the harm caused
by littering oceans with plastic products was not visible to Leo and his
company (Perez, 2017). Plastic pollution
in the world’s oceans is exacerbating sea life, pushing it to the brink of
collapse. Banning plastic is a challenge because of the widespread adoption of
the convenience created by plastic. Global organizations are engaging in a
strategic public relations message to create a change for the protection of the
global ocean systems (Perez, 2017).
Impactful storytelling is the message that organizations are
using to stress the need for environmental change. With 70% of the world's
surface covered in water, the oceans are in a state of crisis (Perez, 2017). It
is not just the plastics of man-made products but the water's absorption of
excess heat from solar radiation. Leo
Baekeland, could not have envisioned the impact on landfills, ocean pollution,
or the loss of historical films (Chandler, 2015). One of the constants of the
Bakelite products is the constantly changing names for plastic so it may be no
surprise to hear the term “celluloid acetate” used in plastic film stock.
The Vinegar Syndrome is the failure and decay of acetate
plastics used in early film production from the motion pictures industry. The
plastic decomposes by shrinking, blistering, and becoming brittle over time.
However, the decay of the film product was first evidenced in the late 1950s but
ironically there was no storyline for the loss of vintage acetate plastic film
until 1991, the Vinegar Syndrome (Chandler, 2015). Preservation of the films
that were created during the twenty-century films and media was to be saved
using digital technologies. One of the early technologies was to use of a
plastic product, the DVD, which ironically has an estimated life expectancy of
fewer than 100 years.
The unexpected invention of Leo Hendrik Baekeland to create
plastic has included the many industries that created products from Bakelite's
early use of phenol and formaldehyde by heating under pressure. Now, the global
oceans are polluted, landfills continue to be filled with plastic water bottles,
and classic films are deteriorating all due to the chemical science in the
nineteenth century. Plant-based cups, bowls, and utensils are only a small part
of the solution.
Finally, Leo Hendrik Baekeland, the inventor of modern-day
plastic, is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, in Sleepy Hallow New York, a
small town just north of the city of Manhattan. Many children grow up hearing
the stories of the Headless Horseman and may not realize that Sleep Hollow is real,
and the town and cemetery are both places I have personally visited. But that is
a true story for another time.
References
Cambridge Dictionary. (2002).
Baekeland , Leo Hendrik (1863 - 1944). In D. Millar (Ed.), The Cambridge
dictionary of scientists (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. Credo
Reference: https://coloradotech.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/dicscientist/baekeland_leo_hendrik_1863_1944/0?institutionId=407
Calvert, R. (2020). Transport
of Plastic Pollution by Ocean Waves (Order No. 28852208). Available from
ProQuest One Academic. (2579455149). https://coloradotech.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/transport-plastic-pollution-ocean-waves/docview/2579455149/se-2
Chandler, M. M. (2015). Preservation
Fever: A Cultural History of Celluloid Acetate Plastics and How They Shaped
Film Preservation (Order No. 3717056). Available from ProQuest
Dissertations & Theses Global. (1711156889). https://coloradotech.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/preservation-fever-cultural-history-celluloid/docview/1711156889/se-2
Landmarks of the
Plastics Industry. England: Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd., Plastics
Division. 1962. pp. 13–25.
Mercelis, J. (2012). Leo
Baekeland's Transatlantic Struggle for Bakelite: Patenting Inside and Outside
of America. Technology and Culture, 53(2), 366-400. https://coloradotech.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/leo-baekelands-transatlantic-struggle-bakelite/docview/1021057589/se-2
Perez, L. (2017). Marine
Litter: The Plastic Pollution in the Ocean Crisis and How to Raise Public
Awareness to Impact Legislation (Order No. 11016015). Available from
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (2157892285). https://coloradotech.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/marine-litter-plastic-pollution-ocean-crisis-how/docview/2157892285/se-2
Smithers, K. D. (2020). "Pliable
and Easily Shaped": History, Harms, and Regulations of Plastic in the
United States (Order No. 28026372). Available from ProQuest Dissertations
& Theses Global. (2465807808). https://coloradotech.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/pliable-easily-shaped-history-harms-regulations/docview/2465807808/se-2
Touhey, E. (2019).
The Influence of Plastic Bag Bans on Pro-Environmental Behaviors in Rhode
Island Coastal Communities (Order No. 13857079). Available from ProQuest
One Academic. (2213657894). https://coloradotech.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/influence-plastic-bag-bans-on-pro-environmental/docview/2213657894/se-2
Yakabi Diosdado, L.
(2018). From Plants to Plastics : Continuous Catalytic Routes for the
Production of Renewable Monomers (Order No. 28930691). Available from
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (2593817267). https://coloradotech.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/plants-plastics-continuous-catalytic-routes/docview/2593817267/se-2
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