Preamble: We live in a scientific and technological world that is so different from the world of a hundred years ago that if someone from that time were to land in our midst today, they are sure to find most things around them magical. Each of the technologies surrounding us today had one or a few seminal patents, the potential of which was perhaps seen by few other than the inventors themselves. However, those patents have had an inordinate impact on several technologies that followed. Let us explore each month for the next few months, one or more such patents that changed the world.
It is not just difficult but impossible to think of the present world without plastics. They are everywhere. They are available in so many avatars that they have replaced many traditional materials, and we often do not even realise it. For example, many articles that were once made from glass are now made from some form of plastic. Many do not realise that many glasses for vision correction are now actually plastic and not glass at all.
At the other end of the spectrum, an environmental catastrophe is looming because of the explosive growth of the use of plastics, especially because of the irresponsible use of single-use plastic. There is a fear of microplastics in plants, humans, and other animals all along the food chain, with harmful effects being conjectured and more and more evidence being found to support it. How and where did it all start?
Billiard balls were once made from ivory. This decimated the elephant population. One manufacturer announced a ten-thousand-dollar prize for anyone who came up with an alternative. Many replacements were actually found. In this milieu, Leo Hendrik Baekeland (November 14, 1863 – February 23, 1944), a Belgian-born American chemist, produced the first artificial plastic from formaldehyde and phenol. Formaldehyde was derived from Methanol, and phenol was derived from coal tar, making it the first completely artificial plastic.
The German Nobel Laureate, Adolf von Baeyer, a chemist, had been working on phenolic resins, but his experiments had resulted only in viscous liquids and brittle solids. However, Baekeland successfully controlled the phenol-formaldehyde condensation reaction and produced the first synthetic resin. Baekeland stopped the reaction while the resin was still in a liquid state. This resin (called resol) could be used to make useful plastic. Alternatively, it could be brought to a solid material form (called resitol). This solid was practically infusible and insoluble. But it could be powdered and softened by heating and shaped using a mould. By being heated under pressure, both could be cured into a final product called Bakelite. This was the first ever plastic. Baekeland obtained two related patents in 1909 - US942700A and US942699A.
Bakelite was put into use in a variety of applications, especially in the electrical and electronics industries, because it is a good insulator and heat-resistant. Bakelite was fashioned into incandescent bulb holders, sockets for vacuum tubes, knobs of radios, and even whole cabinets of radios. For a while, it was used to make billiard balls, too, but it was replaced by other plastics not long after.
Baekeland was a prolific inventor and had several patents in his name. He achieved name and fame in his lifetime. He appeared on the cover of the inaugural issue of the magazine Plastics in 1925. He was featured on the cover of Time magazine in September 1924. He died a recluse and an eccentric in 1944.
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