Marvelous, Wondrous Bakelite

Howard W. Minners - President MAFFI

Bakelite is used for several components of the Model "A" Ford, including of course the distributor head and cap, several other elements in the electrical system, the 1930-31 horn button, and a few additional, unrelated uses such as for the Landau Iron spacers of the Sport Coupe and Cabriolet. This novel "material of a thousand uses," as it was advertised, has an interesting origin.

For its time, "Bakelite" was a rather innovative and advanced material. Although it is a product of the early 20th Century, its origins can be traced back to the development of plastics in the Victorian era.. .essentially a substance that could be formed under heat and pressure. Working in New York, a Belgian chemist, Dr. Leo Hendrik Baekeland, patented in July 1907 a new and entirely synthetic plastic... he named the new material "Bakelite" after an Anglicized version of his own surname. This development effectively ushered in the modern plastics industry. Indeed, Bakelite marks the beginning of a lineage that today includes the so called "polys" such as polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene and others... products without which the world as we know it today would hardly exist.

Plastics were sometimes derived from natural sources, for example, Henry Ford's 1941 "soya" bodied car. Other plastics are semi-synthetic, i.e. the result of a chemical action on a natural substance. Totally synthetic plastics are chemically engineered from coal and oil products. Whether man-made or synthetic, all plastics can be classified according to their molecular structure and how they respond to high temperatures. Some are "thermoplastic" in that, like candle wax, they can be reshaped when heated. Others are called "thermosetting" because like an egg shell, their shape is forever fixed. Thermosetting plastics can be decomposed by the application of great heat, but they do not return to their original viscous state... they are, in effect, set for life. Significantly, Bakelite earned the distinction of being the world's very first, totally synthetic, thermosetting plastic.

The son of a Ghent, Belgium, shoemaker and born in the same year (1863) as Henry Ford, Leo Baekeland excelled in his chemistry studies at Ghent University In 1887, he patented a method for making photographic plates which could be developed under water. About 6 years later and after moving to the U.S., Baekeland successfully invented Velox photographic paper. This discovery attracted the interest of George Eastman and his Kodak Company, which soon bought the rights to Velox paper. The purchase price of approximately $750,000, a distinctly handsome sum at that time, made Baekeland financially independent. He installed a home chemistry laboratory in converted stables adjoining his Yonkers, New York home, and returned to earlier work with phenolic resins.

Dr. Baekeland's scientific contribution to the development of plastics was primarily in the discovery of the method by which the reaction of phenol and formaldehyde could be controlled, thereby making possible the manufacture of Bakelite on a large, commercial scale. Baekeland determined the optimal combination of heat, pressure, and an alkaline catalyst that were required for phenol and formaldehyde to combine into a thermosetting resin. His basic principles are still in use today.

Bakelite was hailed for its versatility in industrial applications. As a thermosetting plastic, it was resistant to heat, moisture and chemicals. Bakelite was notably valued for its electrical insulation properties. It was tough and could be machined and would accept a heavy mechanical load. Pigments were easily added for desired coloration. Moreover, in addition to a myriad of industrial uses, Bakelite was also extensively adopted to make telecommunications equipment including telephones, for camera, radio and television castings, for toys, jewelry, poker chips, toaster parts.. even for coffins. The quite successful Bakelite Company was eventually acquired in 1939 by the chemical giant, Union Carbide. Dr. Leo Baekeland, who was rightfully called the Father of Plastics, died in 1944.

The September 22, 1924 issue of Time magazine displayed a cover photograph of Dr. Baekeland, who at the time was serving as President of the American Chemical Society: The short Time article on page 20 of that issue described Bakelite with colorful era enthusiasm as follows: "Superficially, it is a composition, born of fire and mystery, having the rigor and brilliance of glass, the luster of amber from the Isles. Poetically, it is a resin formed from equal parts of phenol and formaldehyde, in the presence of a base, by the application of heat It will not burn. It will not melt. It is used in pipe stems, fountain pens, billiard balls, telephone fixtures, castanets, radiator caps, etc. In liquid form it is a varnish. Jellied, it is glue. Those familiar with its possibilities claim that in a few years it will be embodied in every mechanical facility of modern civilization. From the time that a man brushes his teeth in the morning with a Bakelite handled brush, until the moment he falls back upon his Bakelite bed (in the evening), all that he touches, sees, uses, will be made of this material of a thousand uses..."

A June 1929 Canadian magazine advertisement for Bakelite depicting a Model "A" distributor body and cap, claimed that "extreme heat and cold, water, oil, fumes, etc. will not cause the Bakelite parts to change their dimensions. The cap will always fit perfectly." Well, almost, anyway!

For further reading, see the beautifully color-illustrated book: Bakelite, An Illustrated Guide to Collectible Bakelite Objects by Patrick Cook and Catherine Sleeker, Chartwell Books, Secaucus, New York, 1992. Much of the information above is based on this delightful, well-researched publication.