Leo Baekeland, Belgian-American Inventor

Leo Baekeland, Belgian-American Inventor

Baekeland in his laboratory. Leo Henricus Arthur Baekeland (November 14, 1863 - February 23, 1944) was a Belgian-American chemist. In 1889 while honeymooning in NYC, he met Richard Anthony, part owner of a photographic company. Baekeland had already invented a process to develop photographic plates using water instead of other chemicals; Anthony saw potential in the young chemist and offered him a job. In 1893 he perfected the process to produce a photographic paper that would allow enlargements to be printed by artificial light, which he named Velox. By controlling the pressure and temperature applied to phenol and formaldehyde, he invented Bakelite (polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride). His process patent for making insoluble products of phenol and formaldehyde was filed in July 1907, and granted on December 7, 1909. His invention of Bakelite, an inexpensive, nonflammable, versatile, and popular plastic, marked the beginning of the modern plastics industry. He sold the General Bakelite Company to Union Carbide in 1939 and, at his son's prompting, he retired. He died in 1944, at the age of 80, of a cerebral hemorrhage. No photographer credited, undated.

Album / NYPL/Science Source

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27.4 x 33.0 cm | 10.8 x 13.0 in (300 dpi)