Word: baekeland
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Died. Dr. Leo Hendrik" Baekeland, 80, father of plastics; in Beacon, N.Y. In 1909 courtly, dignified, Belgian-born Baekeland invented Bakelite (oxybenzyl-methylenglycolanhydride) - the first successful, noninflammable, synthetic solid. He got his start in 1880 when, as the youngest student at the University of Ghent, he developed Velox paper, a photographic milestone which killed tintypes and netted him a reputed $1,000,000 from Eastman Kodak. Baekeland made possible the "improbable sandwich" (plywood) by his work in 1912 on a synthetic resin filler. He was also honored for : separation of cadmium and copper, oxidation of hydrochloric acid under light, dissociation...
...School of Engineering, Manhattan Patent Lawyer (and Theatre Guild director) Lawrence Langner, Ethyl Gasoline Corp.'s Vice President Thomas Midgley, Director Watson Davis of Science Service, Engineering Dean Webster N. Jones of Carnegie Tech, U. S. Patent Commissioner Conway Coe. Absent from the first meeting were Industrialist George Baekeland (Bakelite Corp.) and Dr. Orville Wright, once rated a crackpot tried & true...
HARRIET E. RAYMOND Celluloid Corp. New York City ; True, John Hyatt pioneered plastics with the invention of Celluloid in 1868 (he was after a $10,000 prize for a synthetic billiard ball). But not until Dr. Baekeland invented non-inflammable synthetic resin did the modern plastics industry come into...
Legend has it that Eastman paid Baekeland $1,000,000, several times the minimum sum on which the young inventor had set his mind. At all events, he found himself, at 35, rich enough to do what he pleased. He converted a stable in his back yard into a laboratory. He found that phenol (carbolic acid) and formaldehyde interacted to make a non-melting, non-dissolving solid like nothing in nature. This was Bakelite, foundation stone of the synthetic plastic industry. After forming General Bakelite Co. (later Bakelite Corp.) to exploit his discovery, Baekeland methodically listed 43 industries in which...
Until last year when Bakelite Corp. was added to the Union Carbide & Carbon empire, Dr. Baekeland used to visit his Manhattan office frequently. Now he is "fully retired" but far from inactive. A hale old man with a courtly old-world manner, he has never had time for politics or social affairs, but his talk betrays an encyclopedic knowledge of world events and history. He loves the sea and sailing, winters at the place in Cocoanut Grove, Fla. which he bought from the late William Jennings Bryan. He dives for sponges from his unpretentious yacht...