The Age of Plastic
The showing of the Bakelite documentary at Case Western Reserve University had a successful viewing and drew a sizable and diverse crowd this fall. The documentary told the story of Leo Baekeland, the inventor of the first polymer, in an informative, engaging and humorous way. [Read more…]
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Karen Roberts, lohud, The Journal News, October 14, 2016
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Documentary examines the life and work of Bakelite inventor Leo Baekeland, the father of modern plastics.
Leo Hendrik Baekeland may be the most important inventor you’ve never heard of. Baekeland, who discovered the first synthetic plastic, is the subject of a new documentary, “All Things Bakelite,” featured at the Yonkers Film Festival, on Oct. 22.
The film festival, known as YoFi, runs Oct. 16-23.
Baekeland, who was born in Belgium in 1863, invented Bakelite in 1907 in a lab in Yonkers.
The substance, named after its inventor, was one of the earliest synthetic materials made from phenol and formaldehyde. At the time, it transformed modern life, being used in everything from electronics to automobiles, cookware to jewelry, even billiard balls and toothbrushes were made of Bakelite.
That question, asked of Times Square visitors, opens a new documentary that provides the answer: it was the first synthetic compound, which led to plastics. Invented in 1907, the heat-resistant, nonflammable, moldable and strong material played a vital role in the distribution of electricity and development of the automotive and radio industries, among others. Today plastic is ubiquitous, or as one person observes in All Things Bakelite, “Without plastics, you’d have an alternate universe.”
And while the names of the men who invented electricity, the telephone, the automotive assembly line and rubber tires are well known, few outside the chemistry field can name the father of the plastics industry, Leo Hendrik Baekeland (1863–1944). But Hugh Karraker of Redding, executive producer of All Things Bakelite and Baekeland’s great-grandson, hopes that the film about the innovator helps change that, noting, “Just as plastic touches everyone’s lives, All Things Bakelite will have relevance to many people in many differing disciplines.”
