Leo
Baekeland was born in Ghent, Belgium,
in 1863. He was educated at the University of Ghent and at the Charlottenburg
Technische Hochschule in Germany.
In 1889 Baekeland emigrated to the United States and set up his own
laboratory in New York. Within four years
he had invented a photographic paper, Volex, which could be developed
in artificial light. In 1899 he sold the invention to Kodak for $1
million.
His next invention was Bakelite. Made from formaldehyde and phenol,
Bakelite was the first totally synthetic plastic. In 1909 Baekeland
founded the General Bakelite Corporation and his plastic was used
for manufacturing the first generation of telephones. The company
later became part of the union carbide and carbon company. Leo Baekeland
died in 1944.
Last
updated: 26th July, 2002
Available
from Amazon Books (order below)
