All Things Bakelite

The Age of Plastic

2017 has been a busy year for the Team…

In February, we showed the 21 minute version of the film at the Investment & Trade Commission in NYC. (We showed the long version in May ’16).  This time the Deputy Mayor of Ghent and alumni of Ghent University in the USA attended. Roberta Roll represented the Baekeland Family because Hugh was out of the country.

 
In early April, the film was shown to students and professors at UMass Lowell and the next week it was screened at CT Film Fest 52, Bethel Cinema, Connecticut. This screening was anticipated by a write up in the Redding Pilot, part of the HAN Network.

 

John Maher, director, and Marc Huberman, media manager, were interviewed by Pete Stewart on WPKN Bridgeport, CT. Pete was the sound technician on many of our shoots. Listen to interview.
 
The following week the Team flew to Austin, Texas where Professor of History, Jeffrey Meikle, who appears in the film, organized a screening at the University of Texas.
The next day the Team attended the Gala Awards celebration at the WorldFest Film Festival in Houston. We had submitted the short 21-minute version of the film, but they loved it so much, they showed the longer 56-minute version, which won a Platinum REMI Award.

In the first week of May, the short version of the film was shown at the Plastics New Zealand annual meeting. That same week, both versions were shown simultaneously at ANTEC and at the Society of Plastic Engineers 75th Anniversary celebration in Anaheim, California. Hugh was on hand for the screenings. Soon afterwards, Plastics News ran an article, Celebrating Bakelite, and Baekeland, on screen, on the event and

At the end of May, Hugh and John presented the film at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (A previous screening there was Nov.’16).
 
In June, Hugh and John were interviewed for the premier of Fairfield County’s CTV 192 show, “In Good Company” with host Ron Dukenski.
 
In August, because it had been suggested to us by reliable sources that many people under 50 don’t know what Bakelite is, we decided to add a subtitle, making it: “All Things Bakelite: The Age of Plastic“.

Why We Added A Sub-Title

We’ve discovered that so many people, who are under the age of 50, who are not students of or working in plastics and chemistry are unfamiliar with Bakelite.  So, we’ve decided to add a subtitle: All Things Bakelite: The Age of Plastic

Also, there are two versions of the film, 21 minutes (educational/industry) and 56 minutes (full length).  #bakelitethefilm

Our thank you to Russ Broome at the Society of Plastics Engineers

Our friend Russell Broome, is stepping down as managing director at The Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE).  He was president of SPE 2011-2012.  

After being introduced to him in 2016, by Glenn Beall, Chairman of the History Committee of the Plastics Pioneers Association, we are happy to have him as one of our strongest supporters.

Russ attended the first public screening of our film in March ’16 at the Prospector Theater in Ridgefield, CT.  During the Q&A following the film, Russ invited us to show the film at the SPE 75th Anniversary celebration in Anaheim; CA.  May ’17, which we did.  Last summer, Russ asked us to show our film at the Design in Plastics conference at Rhode Island School of Design.  And, he has scheduled our film for the DIP conference at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI. being held in November.

On several occasions, Russ has invited us to meet with staff at the SPE headquarters in Bethel, CT. We are discussing the possibility of a collaboration in the near future.

Team All Things Bakelite, is happy that Russ will remain active with SPE and will continue in the plastics industry.  We wish him the best of luck.  Please click the Plastics News link to learn even more about Russ and his journey…
#plasti_man 4spe_plastics #plasticsnews #plastics #baekeland #lhbaekeland #bakelite #bakelitethefilm #hughkarraker #johnmaher #jemfilms #marchuberman

Glenn Beall, Hugh Karraker, Russ Broome – SPE 75th Anniversary in Anaheim, CA 2017
John Maher, Russ Broome, Marc Huberman and Hugh Karraker at Design in Plastics 2016 at the Rhode Island School of Design after-party.

Leo Hendrik Baekeland – Patent Specialist

Dr. A. L. Cardon – Senior Research Scientist – Retired

VYNCOLIT-Sumitomo Bakelite
Text from: International Conference on Polymers and Molds Innovations
100 Years of Bakelite, Past and Future April 18, 2007

Leo Baekeland was very concerned about the legal rights of his inventions. More than 400 patents were published, and the numerous infringements by competitors were brought to court and almost always won by Baekeland. He proved to be an excellent patent specialist, in such a way that he was adviser for other companies in other domains suffering problems with patent infringements. It proved to be fruitful to theirs, as well as to his own profits. [Read more…]