BAEKELAND, LEO HENDRIK ) , the inventor of bakelite, was born in Ghent, Belgium. In 1889, he came to America where he became active as research chemist, particularly in the manufacture of photographic materials, a sub ject in which he had been interested since student days at Ghent. In 1893 he founded the Nepera Chemical Company, in Yonkers, N.Y., for the manufacture of photographic papers. The most suc cessful was Velox paper which utilizes a special colloidal chloride of silver relatively unsensitive to yellowish and greenish light, but much more sensitive to blue and violet rays. Hence, it can be exposed and developed rapidly and conveniently. Baekeland then devoted himself to chemical research, developing the apparatus used in commercial production of caustic soda and chlorine by passing electric current through a solution of brine.
In 1906, he undertook a new line of research which resulted in his invention of Bakelite materials, synthetic phenol resinoids obtained by action of phenols upon aldehydes. Baekeland's pro duct resembled shellac or amber in colour and form, but was otherwise so totally different that it formed the basis for an entirely new industry. Here was a super-resin which nature had not furnished; it had been built to specification in the research laboratory. This invention should probably be considered Baeke land's leading work, so broadly useful have resinoids become in nearly every phase of human activity. They have been used for electrical purposes and endless other industrial applications where natural resins, rubber or celluloid are unsuited. These applications range from radio and wireless telegraphy and other electrical devices to gears, grindstones, aeroplane propellers, self-lubricating bearings, jewellery and ornamental articles.