30 Facts About Leo Baekeland

Leo Baekeland is best known for the inventions of Velox photographic paper in 1893, and Bakelite in 1907.

Leo Baekeland has been called "The Father of the Plastics Industry" for his invention of Bakelite, an inexpensive, non-flammable and versatile plastic, which marked the beginning of the modern plastics industry.

Leo Baekeland was born in Ghent, Belgium, on November 14,1863, the son of a cobbler, Charles Baekeland, and a house maid, Rosalia Merchie.

Leo Baekeland's siblings were: Elodia Maria Baekeland; Melonia Leonia Baekeland; Edmundus Baekeland; Rachel Helena Baekeland and Delphina Baekeland.

Leo Baekeland graduated with honours from the Ghent Municipal Technical School and was awarded a scholarship by the City of Ghent to study chemistry at the Ghent University, which he entered in 1880.

Leo Baekeland produced an hour-long documentary, All Things Bakelite, which was shown at film festivals and on PBS stations nation-wide.

Professor Chandler was influential in convincing Leo Baekeland to stay in the United States.

Leo Baekeland had already invented a process to develop photographic plates using water instead of other chemicals, which he had patented in Belgium in 1887.

Leo Baekeland worked for the Anthony company for two years, and in 1891, set up in business for himself working as a consulting chemist.

At the time, the US was suffering a recession and there were no investors or buyers for his proposed new product, so Baekeland became partners with Leonard Jacobi and established the Nepera Chemical Company in Nepera Park, Yonkers, New York.

One of the requirements of the Nepera sale was, in effect, a non-compete clause: Leo Baekeland agreed not to do research in photography for at least 20 years.

Leo Baekeland would have to find a new area of research.

Leo Baekeland was hired as an independent consultant, with the responsibility of constructing and operating a pilot plant.

Leo Baekeland developed a stronger diaphragm cell for the chloralkali process, using woven asbestos cloth filled with a mixture of iron oxide, asbestos fibre, and iron hydroxide.

Leo Baekeland's improvements were important to the founding of Hooker Chemical Company and the construction of one of the world's largest electrochemical plants, at Niagara Falls.

Leo Baekeland was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1935 and the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1936.

Leo Baekeland created a "black guck" which he considered useless and irrelevant to his search for synthetic dyes.

Baeyer's student, Werner Kleeberg, experimented with phenol and formaldehyde in 1891, but as Leo Baekeland noted "could not crystallize this mess, nor purify it to constant composition, nor in fact do anything with it once produced".

Leo Baekeland began to investigate the reactions of phenol and formaldehyde.

Leo Baekeland familiarized himself with previous work and approached the field systematically, carefully controlling and examining the effects of temperature, pressure, and the types and proportions of materials used.

Leo Baekeland produced a soluble phenol-formaldehyde shellac called "Novolak" but concluded that its properties were inferior.

Leo Baekeland continued to explore possible combinations of phenol and formaldehyde, intrigued by the possibility that such materials could be used in molding.

In February 1909, Leo Baekeland officially announced his achievement at a meeting of the New York section of the American Chemical Society.

In 1917, Leo Baekeland became a professor by special appointment at Columbia University.

Leo Baekeland received many awards and honors, both during his lifetime and beyond, including the Perkin Medal in 1916 and the Franklin Medal in 1940.

Leo Baekeland held more than 100 patents, including processes for the separation of copper and cadmium, and for the impregnation of wood.

Leo Baekeland sold the General Bakelite Company to Union Carbide in 1939 and, at his son's prompting, he retired.

Leo Baekeland became a recluse, attempting to develop an immense tropical garden on his winter estate in Coconut Grove, Florida.

Leo Baekeland died of a stroke in a sanatorium in Beacon, New York, in 1944.

Leo Baekeland is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York.