Made of a combination of phenol and formaldehyde, Bakelite is a type of plastic that became popular during the 1930s and 40s as a material not only for jewelry, but for other consumer goods like ...

IT IS a busy evening in New York and a man is asking people on the street at random if they are familiar with Bakelite. None of them knows what it is, but most think it is related to food. We meet ...

When Leo Hendrik Baekeland invented Bakelite in 1907, he changed the world — ushering in the Age of Plastics and transforming the way people lived. The phenolic resin took off first as a superior, ...

When Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland created the first entirely synthetic plastic in 1909, it revolutionized the way many consumer goods were manufactured. Baekeland called his plastic “Bakelite” and ...

SAGINAW, MICH. — A major Bakelite collection, ``Heat and Pressure — 100 Years of Bakelite,'' is on display at Castle Museum in Saginaw to mark Leo Hendrik Baekeland's invention of Bakelite in 1907.

Created more than a century ago, bakelite is a completely synthetic plastic material used in industrial and commercial products. Because it doesn’t contain petroleum, it can’t be melted or recycled.

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts. Bakelite jewelry was one of the only affordable accessories for women ...

Groot is an avid collector of Bakelite plastic products, with some 4,000 items in his collection. Karraker is the great-grandson of the inventor of Bakelite, Leo Hendrik Baekeland. They met at a ...

A new class of Bakelite collectors is emerging, and it’s hardly the swap-meet set. The spoils: a bangle or three with inlaid geometrics, perhaps a marbled ring with bursts of bezel-set gemstones. That ...

For plastics aficionados and others, the movie you’ve been waiting for arrives next month. It tells the story of Leo Baekeland, who in 1907 changed the world forever. Baekeland was a Belgian-American ...