Leo Baekeland

by Nica de Nijs

Leo Henricus Arthur Baekeland was a Belgian-born chemist who has been called "The Father of the Plastics Industry." In 1907, he invented Bakelite, a popular plastic that marked the beginning of the current plastics industry.

Personal Life

Leo Baekeland was born on November 14, 1863. He was born in Sint-Martens-Latem, Belgium, but spent much of his early life in Ghent, Belgium. It was there that he met and married his wife, Céline Swarts.

University Education and Career

Baekeland studied chemistry at the University of Ghent, eventually acquiring his Phd there. He worked briefly as the professor of physics and chemistry at the Government Higher Normal School in Bruges before returning to Ghent as an associate professor of chemistry.

While visiting America on a university travel scholarship, Baekeland met Professor Charles F. Chandler, who eventually convinced him to stay in the United States. He worked as a chemist at E. and H.T. Anthony photographic company and then a consulting chemist. He made his money by creating the first commercially successful photographic paper. Freed from financial confines, he then returned to studying what interested him in his own laboratory.

It was then that Baekeland turned to electrochemistry and, finally, synthetic resins. Though other scientists had done research with phenols and aldehydes, their work tended to end up as a "black guck" that could not crystallize, purify, or do anything. Baekeland familiarized himself with these studies and then began his own experiments. One experiment attempted to develop a replacement for shellac. Baekeland then turned to possible uses for synthetic materials in molding. Through temperature and pressure control, he was able to create a hard, moldable plastic, which he called Bakelite.

In 1917, Baekeland returned to academia as a professor by special appointment at the University of Columbia and became a United States citizen in 1919. In 1939, at the urging of is son, Baekeland retired to Florida where became a recluse; eating only canned meals and obsessively maintaining his garden. He received many awards in his lifetime and after his death in 1944.

Scientific Contribution

The invention of Bakelite was Baekeland's most important accomplishment. It was the first plastic that could be heated and still retain it's shape. At the time, radios, telephones, and many insulators were made from Bakelite due to it's electrical nonconductivity and heat-resistant properties. This new type of plastic, which could be formed into any shape and then stay that, even in heat, ushered in a new age of plastics. Without Baekeland's discoveries, plastic insulators might not be as prevalent as they are today.