Podcast appearances and mentions of leo baekeland

**Discussion begins at 5:00**Plastic was invented in the early 20th century, with the first synthetic plastic being created in 1907 by Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland. He developed Bakelite, the first fully synthetic plastic, which was a revolutionary material due to its ability to resist heat and electrical conductivity. Bakelite was initially used in electrical insulators, radios, and automotive parts.  Since that time, plastics have changed the world.  They are widely used in medical devices, and provide safe and sterile packaging for medical supplies, as well as extend the life of food and water.   It is cheap to produce, and more lightweight than older materials.  At the end of the 21st century there were mounting concerns about the environmental impact of plastic.  As a result, the general public was instructed to recycle and the idea that their discarded plastic was being reused, caused people to embrace the use of plastics.  I, for one, had the childhood chore of separating all of the recycling every Sunday night for pick up on Monday morning.  But what if I told you that 90% of plastics aren't even being recycled and that this government project promoting recycling was all a business tool used by big oil companies to pad their pockets?  Send us a textSupport the showTheme song by INDA

Shop Talk looks at a LinkedIn post from DEI expert and consultant Dr. Lauren Tucker. She is leaving the fight for justice behind, and we find her rationale has correlation with the fight for LGBTQ acceptance too. Caught My Eye looks at a cache of not seen segments from The Thunderbirds 1960's TV series. Also, the Boy Scouts are selling off property and artwork to pay for over 84,000 sexual abuse claims. Norman Rockwell and J. C. Leyendecker works are among the items up for auction. Leo Baekeland, the inventor Bakelite and Father of the Plastics Industry, is our Business Birthday.We're all business. Except when we're not.Apple Podcasts: apple.co/1WwDBrCSpotify: spoti.fi/2pC19B1iHeart Radio: bit.ly/4aza5LWYouTube Music: bit.ly/43T8Y81Pandora: pdora.co/2pEfctjYouTube: bit.ly/1spAF5aAlso follow Tim and John on:Facebook: www.facebook.com/focusgroupradio

The commercial success of Bakelite extended beyond its utility as its distinctive appearance, became a hallmark of the Art Deco era and added another layer to Bakelite's rapid and widespread ...

On this day in 1909 Leo Baekeland announced his invention of Bakelite to the American Chemical Society. Having already earned a fortune selling his photographic patent to Kodak, the Belgian-born chemist had opened his own lab in Yonkers, experimenting with formaldehyde and phenol. The resulting material, which he called Bakelite, could be used in everything from toys to automobiles, and was marketed as ‘The Material of 1,000 Uses!' In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly uncover the explosive billiard balls of the post-ivory era; explain why plastic was a game-changer for the costume jewelry market; and reveal how the material played a surprising role in one of the great art crimes of the 20th century…  Further Reading: • The Story of Bakelite, the First Synthetic Plastic (ThoughtCo, 2019): https://www.thoughtco.com/story-of-synthetic-plastic-1991672 • ‘How plastic became a victim of its own success' (BBC, 2017): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41188462 • ‘How Bakelite Changed the World' (How Stuff Works, 2013): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnEtfdthmG0&t=13s Love the show? Join

Saviez-vous que… la bille de billard combinait deux savoir-faire belges? Le 1er épisode de notre nouvelle série de podcasts revient sur cet étonnant hasard. En 1907, Leo Baekeland, un Belge ayant pris la nationalité américaine, découvre la bakélite. Cette matière plastique révolutionne l'industrie. Thermodurcissable, elle est produite en grande quantité et est utilisée dans la fabrication de téléphones, de jouets, d'appareils électroménagers ou encore de billes de billard. “On pouvait presque tout faire avec la bakélite”, indique Eric Goethals, chimiste et professeur émérite de l'Université de Gand, dans le podcast. Dotée d'une importante résistance au choc et homogène, cette résine s'impose au détriment de l'ivoire, matière vivante, chère et rare, qui se déformait dans le temps. Le leader mondial des billes de billard À Péruwelz, dans le Hainaut, près de la frontière française, une entreprise s'appuie sur cette invention belge. Elle s'appelle Saluc. D'abord spécialisée dans les tanins synthétiques lors de sa création en 1923, elle voit ce marché s'affaisser dans la période d'après-guerre et se met à produire des billes de billard. Dans les années 70, l'entreprise se développe, grandit et, dans les années 90, met à terre la plupart de ses concurrents. “Si nous n'avions pas les Taïwanais qui sont arrivés dans les années 80, nous serions les seuls au monde à produire des billes de billard de qualité.”, souligne Yves Bilquin, COO de Saluc, à notre micro. Aujourd'hui, la société, leader, distribue près de 80% des billes de billard dans le monde. Les sept épisodes du podcast Saviez-vous?  Saviez-vous?, ce sont sept épisodes d'une douzaine de minutes. Au cours de ce podcast, vous entendrez les récits passionnants et immersifs de sept succès entrepreneuriaux historiques, nés sur notre territoire, et pourtant, trop peu connus. Entrepreneurs, innovateurs, précurseurs, leurs histoires vont vous étonner et vous inspirer. Au programme: Ép 1: Saviez-vous… que la boule de billard combinait deux savoir-faire belges? Ép 2:  Saviez-vous… qu'un Belge avait inventé Google bien avant Google? Ép 3: Saviez-vous… que le concept de bourse était né à Bruges? Ép 4: Saviez-vous… que la loterie moderne avait été imaginée en Belgique? Ép 5: Saviez-vous… que l'arrivée de moines français avait favorisé l'essor des bières trappistes chez nous? Ép 6: Saviez-vous… qu'un Liégeois était à l'origine de la création des grands magasins? Ép 7: Saviez-vous… que la Belgique n'était pas prédestinée à devenir une nation du chocolat?   Les autres podcasts de L'Echo:  Découvrez notre offre de podcasts, qui traverse l'actualité économique et business et plonge dans des thèmes comme l'entrepreneuriat, l'innovation ou l'investissement.   Le Brief   Tracker  Yaka!  En clair  Les tutos bourse et immo   Hors pistes  Crédits  Journaliste: Guillaume CordeauxRéalisation: Julie GarrigueMixage: Rudi WynantsIllustrations: Marie-Anne DozoMusique: Stef Lenaerts See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode introduces us to the first attempts at "plastic materials" in the 19th century, from vulcanized rubber by Charles Goodyear and Thomas Hancock, to Alexander Parkes's "Parkesine", the first synthetic polymer. Later polymers of the Victorian era include Celluloid, rayon, photographic film and the rise of easy photography, the mostly forgotten charmer of the Art Deco word called galalith, Bakelite, and cellulose acetate--also called Celanese. Among the chemists we meet are John Hyatt, George Eastman, Louis Bernigaud, Wilhelm Krische, and Leo Baekeland, and Camille and Henri Dreyfus. But even with these developments, chemists still weren't sure what a polymer really is.Support the show Support my podcast at https://www.patreon.com/thehistoryofchemistry Tell me how your life relates to chemistry! E-mail me at steve@historyofchem.com Get my book, O Mg! How Chemistry Came to Be, from World Scientific Publishing, https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12670#t=aboutBook ...

O pai do plástico, Leo Baekeland, morreu faz hoje 78 anos.

Il 5 febbraio 1909 Leo Baekeland mette a punto la bachelite la prima resina sintetica al mondo - Il rapporto di fine anno 2021 dell'Osservatorio sicurezza sul lavoro Vega di Mestre VE che descrive l'incidenza degli infortuni sul lavoro nelle varie regioni italiane rispetto all'incidenza media nazionale

 Tout le monde a un bijou fétiche, précieux ou non, mais auquel on est terriblement attaché parce qu'on nous l'a transmis avec son histoire, parce qu'on se l'ait offert à un moment particulier, parce qu'on nous l'a offert, avec amour. Quelque fois ce n'est même pas un bijou. Mais l'histoire qui le sous-tend, le transforme en joyau de notre cœur. Il est notre gri-gri, notre talisman, notre trésor.      Alors je suis allée à la chasse aux histoires et je suis tombée sur un bec. Pour nombre d'entre nous, ce bijou fétiche est tellement lié aux sentiments qu'il est difficile de la partager.     Véronique a accepté et je la remercie. Voici l'histoire de son bijou fétiche.     Elle caresse doucement les formes bombées de l'objet d'un doigt affectueux. Elle se tait, en elle-même, intensément. Alors je me tais, attentive. Elle inspire profondément puis commence à raconter : « ma grand-mère a reçu cette petite cloche, le jour de sa communion, des mains de sa mère. Il est devenu son porte-bonheur, au sens littéral car un an après sa mère disparaissait ne lui laissant que ce souvenir de bonheur ».     L'objet est chargé de symbole : c'est un bijou fétiche.     D'un point de vue mystique, cette petite cloche cumule le symbole du contenant et du contenu.  En effet, la cloche du celtique Clocca, est l'un des plus anciens instruments sonores. On suppose qu'elle apparaît quand l'homme a maîtrisé la technique de l'argile et l'usage du feu pour fabriquer des vases « sonores » par résonance. D'ailleurs les plus anciennes cloches en métal datent de l'âge de bronze. La cloche est d'abord un instrument païen et universel dont la longue portée acoustique est utilisée pour communiquer au loin, soit vis-à-vis des hommes. Par exemple au Moyen-Age faire sonner la cloche dans le château permettait aux habitants d'être alerter d'un danger et de se réfugier dans l'enceinte de la citadelle. D'un point de vue religieux, la cloche sert à communiquer vis-à-vis des dieux. Encore aujourd'hui, les cloches des églises accompagnent toujours les rites chrétiens, que ce soit pour les fêtes patronales, le baptême, le mariage, les funérailles, etc. Elle invite au rassemblement du peuple. En ce sens, elle symbolise la communication et l'appel.     La petite cloche de Véronique s'ouvre pour découvrir un chapelet. C'était autrefois un cadeau idéal pour une communiante car la cloche devenue contenant devient ainsi une sorte de clocher, symbole de l'église qui résume la communauté des croyants et des individus. Le chapelet est un objet de dévotion catholique mais est aussi c'est aussi un bijou-symbole qui est utilisé par de nombreuses religions pour compter les prières comme le Tchotki orthodoxe, le Sabha musulman, ou encore le Mâlâ hindouiste. Enfin, le chapelet situé dans la cloche sert de marteau sonore et restitue sa fonction de signal d'alarme ou d'appel aux dévotions.     Mais pour Véronique, ce bijou fétiche est le symbole d'une filiation familiale, d'une transmission de femmes à femmes. Elle évoque d'abord sa grand-mère, Marielle, la première héritière et donc la seconde détentrice. Marielle qui su contrer son destin et s'échapper de la province où son père notaire, âgé et veuf l'entourait d'amour mais aussi de rigides convenances. Véronique raconte « Elle était fantasque, gaie et légère, elle s'est choisi un époux aux goûts artistiques affirmés, habitant Paris et qui l'a amusé toute sa vie ». Marielle décide de transmettre, elle aussi, cette petite cloche à trésor caché. Elle la donne à Geneviève, la mère de Véronique, aînée de ses cinq enfants. Véronique se souvient « au milieu de tous ces beaux bijoux, parmi les saphirs et les perles qu'elle aimait, et que j'avais le droit de caresser, il y avait cette petite cloche qu'elle me prêtait comme un trésor et que j'avais juste le droit de regarder.». Ce trésor c'est le cœur et les sentiments, la tristesse éprouvée, l'amour mère-fille et la lignée qui le rend sororal.     En effet, la petite cloche n'est pas en métal précieux mais en bakélite verte.  Ce matériau, développé entre 1907 et 1909 par le chimiste belge Leo Baekeland, et donc appelée « Bakélite » est de la classe des phénoplastes (dont la nomenclature chimique officielle est anhydrure de polyoxybenzylméthylèneglycol et la formule (C6-H6-O.C-H2-O)x). Sa dureté et sa légèreté a permis de nombreuses utilisation notamment pour des meubles, des pièces automobiles (comme les volants, les manettes, l'allumage des bougies ou les plaques de frein), la bakélite se trouve aussi dans des pièces de l'aéronautique comme les pales d'hélice, des armes par exemple le pistolet mitrailleur MP38, des objets quotidiens (lampe-torche, appareil photo, écouteur), des objets de luxe (la lunette de la montre Rolex GMT-Master, le corps des stylos Montblanc noirs) et même des bijoux (Coco Chanel l'utilise en lançant ses « vrais bijoux en toc »). Reconnaissance suprême, Serge Gainsbourg fait référence à la Bakélite dans sa chanson Sea, Sex and Sun, il cite « Tes p'tits seins de Bakélite qui s'agitent ». Les objets en Bakélite sont devenus aujourd'hui, par leur qualité de conservation comme par l'engouement pour l'Art déco, des objets de collection.     Mais pour Véronique, la valeur intrinsèque de ce bijou fétiche n'est pas importante. Et elle sait de quoi elle parle ! Gemmologue reconnue, elle a tenu dans ses mains les plus belles pierres précieuses !     Elle me raconte les paroles de sa mère lorsque qu'elle lui a donné cette petite cloche à la naissance de sa fille Blanche : « Cette petite cloche doit mener son destin de vie et je veux qu'elle t'accompagne ainsi que Blanche tout au long de ta vie ». Véronique a été d'autant plus touchée qu'elle n'est pas l'aînée de sa fratrie. Elle a bien ressenti qu'elle était en quelque sorte élue « gardienne » de cet héritage. Alors depuis ce temps, la petite cloche en Bakélite à sa place sur la table de nuit de Véronique. C'est le dernier objet qu'elle voit avant de rejoindre les bras de Morphée. C'est aussi le premier objet qu'elle voit au réveil. Elle aime la subtilité de l'objet, la rondeur féminine de la forme, la délicatesse des petites perles du chapelet. Elle apprécie le côté « boîte à secret ». Elle ressent l'aura féminine et familiale et à l'occasion lui confie mentalement ses doutes.     Bien entendu sa fille Blanche lui a déjà demandé si elle en hériterait un jour. Véronique a acquiescé car elle sait que sa fille a hérité de la même sensibilité pour les objets et leur histoire. Elle m'avoue « Je laisserai la vie me guider pour choisir le moment de lui transmettre ce bijou fétiche, mais Blanche sera la 5e génération ».           Ainsi se termine cette histoire du bijou fétiche de Véronique      Je suis Anne Desmarest de Jotemps et je donne une voix aux bijoux chaque dimanche. Et si vous aussi vous avez envie de faire parler vos bijoux et votre Maison je serai ravie de vous accompagner pour réaliser votre podcast de marque ou de vous accueillir en partenaire dans mes podcast natifs.     Le podcast « Il était une fois le bijou » est en pleine préparation de son nouveau thème et je brûle d'impatience de vous dévoiler mais il faudra encore attendre un peu.     Notre prochain rdv sur le podcast Brillante sera le 20 février.     Pour ne manquez aucun de nos rendez-vous du dimanche autour du bijou, abonnez à chacun de mes 3 podcasts « Il était une fois le bijou », « le bijou comme un bisou » et « Brillante » sur votre plate-forme d'écoute préférée et encouragez-moi en partageant l'épisode sur vos réseaux sociaux.     Si vous êtes sur Apple podcast ou sur You Tube mettez de jolis commentaires, des pouces ou des étoiles c'est maintenant aussi possible sur Spotify. Et c'est ce qui permet de doper le référencement des podcasts !      Je vous souhaite une jolie semaine, à la semaine prochaine pour votre prochaine histoire de bijoux.     Musique : Allan Deschamps 0 Le Sign,      

Hugh Karraker & John Maher are creators of the documentary, “All Things Bakelite: The Age of Plastic”. It is one of several documentary features from Director John Maher (Throw it Down), that arrived on multiple digital platforms on June 29, 2021 worldwide. In partnership with Bitmax, Executive Producer Hugh Karraker is bringing his great-grandfather Leo Baekeland’s story to iTunes, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, VUDU and more to six continents. The documentary is about Leo Baekeland, a Belgian industrial chemist who forever changed the world. Baekeland was best known for the inventions of Velox photographic paper in 1893, and, more importantly, Bakelite in 1907. He has been called "The Father of the Plastics Industry" for his invention of Bakelite, an inexpensive, nonflammable and versatile plastic, which marked the beginning of the modern plastics industry. Read more at: https://allthingsbakelite.com/Taj Adhav is the co-founder and CEO of Leasecake, a prop tech Orlando, FL-based commercial real estate operating system for location management that has transformed lease and location management for Tenants (Specifically COOs, CFOs, VPs of Real Estate), Landlords and Brokers responsible for managing multiple locations. Customers which include Starbucks, Massage Envy, Jiffy Lube among others rely on Leasecake to provide proactive notifications for all mission-critical, time-sensitive events. Leasecake recently secured $3 million in seed funding in February. Read more at: https://leasecake.com/Visit the Entrepreneur Presenters for September 12, 2021 at their Websites:Cindy Gelormini is a Benjamin Moore Color Expert, Staging Consultant and Real Estate Agent in Northern New Jersey. She works as the in-house decorator and Color Consultant for clients in their homes. As a Staging Consultant, she also helps homeowners and realtors who are selling their homes to quickly and cheaply spruce up their homes to sell, offering low budget solutions to give the home a look that will appeal to buyers. As a Decorating Consultant, she also helps new home buyers choose paint colors, decide where to hang pictures and use what they have to pull together their new home. at: http://www.thepaintdivanj.com/Matt Stranberg is a licensed registered dietitian nutritionist, board certified specialist in sports nutrition and certified strength and conditioning specialist. After his training and graduate programs, he cofounded numerous initiatives at Walden Behavioral Care, including the Walden GOALS program and numerous consultation services designed to assist athletes struggling with eating disorders, disordered eating and problematic physical activity. As a renowned consultant, Matt is known for his dedication to educating and empowering patients of all backgrounds to facilitate a full and meaningful recovery, at: https://www.mattstranbergconsulting.com/ Visit

Hugh Karraker & John Maher are creators of the documentary, “All Things Bakelite: The Age of Plastic”. It is one of several documentary features from Director John Maher (Throw it Down), that arrived on multiple digital platforms on June 29, 2021 worldwide. In partnership with Bitmax, Executive Producer Hugh Karraker is bringing his great-grandfather Leo Baekeland’s story to iTunes, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, VUDU and more to six continents. The documentary is about Leo Baekeland, a Belgian industrial chemist who forever changed the world. Baekeland was best known for the inventions of Velox photographic paper in 1893, and, more importantly, Bakelite in 1907. He has been called "The Father of the Plastics Industry" for his invention of Bakelite, an inexpensive, nonflammable and versatile plastic, which marked the beginning of the modern plastics industry. Read more at: https://allthingsbakelite.com/Taj Adhav is the co-founder and CEO of Leasecake, a prop tech Orlando, FL-based commercial real estate operating system for location management that has transformed lease and location management for Tenants (Specifically COOs, CFOs, VPs of Real Estate), Landlords and Brokers responsible for managing multiple locations. Customers which include Starbucks, Massage Envy, Jiffy Lube among others rely on Leasecake to provide proactive notifications for all mission-critical, time-sensitive events. Leasecake recently secured $3 million in seed funding in February. Read more at: https://leasecake.com/Visit the Entrepreneur Presenters for September 12, 2021 at their Websites:Cindy Gelormini is a Benjamin Moore Color Expert, Staging Consultant and Real Estate Agent in Northern New Jersey. She works as the in-house decorator and Color Consultant for clients in their homes. As a Staging Consultant, she also helps homeowners and realtors who are selling their homes to quickly and cheaply spruce up their homes to sell, offering low budget solutions to give the home a look that will appeal to buyers. As a Decorating Consultant, she also helps new home buyers choose paint colors, decide where to hang pictures and use what they have to pull together their new home. at: http://www.thepaintdivanj.com/Matt Stranberg is a licensed registered dietitian nutritionist, board certified specialist in sports nutrition and certified strength and conditioning specialist. After his training and graduate programs, he cofounded numerous initiatives at Walden Behavioral Care, including the Walden GOALS program and numerous consultation services designed to assist athletes struggling with eating disorders, disordered eating and problematic physical activity. As a renowned consultant, Matt is known for his dedication to educating and empowering patients of all backgrounds to facilitate a full and meaningful recovery, at: https://www.mattstranbergconsulting.com/ Visit

Plastic has been with us for so long that we forget how much it has changed the world, mostly for the better. But the first completely artificial plastic wasn't called plastic: It was called Bakelite. Before Bakelite, people used rubber, making it into useful shapes. But in the 19th century, people started making new materials from plants and milk. Bakelite was the first completely artificial plastic, made by Belgian American chemist Leo Baekeland in New York in 1907. Bakelite had many advantages over earlier materials. It didn't conduct electricity, it was lightweight and it didn't burn easily. After you heated it into shape, it was tough and durable. It was also good to look at, with a lacquered appearance. Coco Chanel made Bakelite jewelry. There were toys and radios. The instantly recognizable Bakelite phone designed by Norwegian designer Jean Heiberg for Eriksson in the 1930s is still a collectible. Since the invention of Bakelite, chemists have cooked up a dizzying number of plastics, each with a different use. Plastics cover electric wires and keep food fresh. They are used to make toys, smartphones and car interiors. They travel to other planets. They make modern life convenient. But with the good comes the bad. Plastics litter streets, the countryside, the oceans. They can last for hundreds of years. Not all plastics can be recycled. The challenge for chemists is to find a way to deal with plastic waste so that humanity can still benefit from this marvelous invention. (T) This article was provided by The Japan Times Alpha.

Nearly everything is fine in moderation. Plastics exploded as an industry in the post World War II boom of the 50s and on - but goes back far further. A plastic is a category of materials called a polymer. These are materials comprised of long chains of molecules that can be easily found in nature because cellulose, the cellular walls of plants, comes in many forms. But while the word plastics comes from easily pliable materials, we don't usually think of plant-based products as plastics. Instead, we think of the synthetic polymers. But documented uses go back thousands of years, especially with early uses of natural rubbers, milk proteins, gums, and shellacs. But as we rounded the corner into the mid-1800s with the rise of chemistry things picked up steam. That's when Charles Goodyear wanted to keep tires from popping and so discovered vulcanization as a means to treat rubber. Vulcanization is when rubber is heated and mixed with other chemicals like sulphur. Then in 1869 John Wesley Hyatt looked for an alternative to natural ivory for things like billiards. He found that cotton fibers could be treated with camphor, which came from the waxy wood of camphor laurels. The substance could be shaped, dried, and then come off as most anything nature produced. When Wesley innovated plastics most camphor was extracted from trees, but today most camphor is synthetically produced from petroleum-based products, further freeing humans from needing natural materials to produce goods. Not only could we skip killing elephants but we could avoid chopping down forests to meet our needs for goods. Leo Baekeland gave us Bakelite in 1907. By then we were using other materials and the hunt was on for all kinds of materials. Shellac had been used as a moisture sealant for centuries and came from the female lac bugs in trees around India but could also be used to insulate electrical components. Baekeland created a phenol and formaldehyde solution he called Novolak but as with the advent of steel realized that he could change the temperature and how much pressure was applied to the solution that he could make it harder and more moldable - thus Bakelite became the first fully synthetic polymer. Hermann Staudinger started doing more of the academic research to explain why these reactions were happening. In 1920, he wrote a paper that looked at rubber, starch, and other polymers, explaining how their long chains of molecular units were linked by covalent bonds. Thus their high molecular weights. He would go on to collaborate with his wife Magda Voita, who was a bonanist and his polymer theories proven. And so plastics went from experimentation to science.  Scientists and experimenters alike continued to investigate uses and by 1925 there was even a magazine called Plastics. They could add filler to Bakelite and create colored plastics for all kinds of uses and started molding jewelry, gears, and other trinkets. They could heat it to 300 degrees and then inject it into molds. And so plastic manufacturing was born. As with many of the things we interact with in our modern world, use grew through the decades and there were other industries that started to merge, evolve, and diverge.  Éleuthère Irénée du Pont had worked with gunpowder in France and his family immigrated to the United States after the French Revolution. He'd worked with chemist Antoine Lavoisier while a student and started producing gunpowder in the early 1800s. That company, which evolved into the modern DuPont, always excelled in various materials sciences and through the 1920s also focused on a number of polymers. One of their employees, Wallace Carothers, invented neoprene and so gave us our first super polymer in 1928. He would go on to invent nylon as a synthetic form of silk in 1935. DuPont also brought us Teflon and insecticides in 1935. Acrylic acid went back to the mid-1800s but as people were experimenting with combining chemicals around the same time we saw British chemists John Crawford and Rowland Hill and independently German Otto Röhm develop products based on polymathy methacrylate. Here, they were creating clear, hard plastic to be used like glass. The Brits called theirs Perspex and the Germans called theirs Plexiglas when they went to market, with our friends back at DuPont creating yet another called Lucite.  The period between World War I and World War II saw advancements in nearly every science - from mechanical computing to early electrical switching and of course, plastics. The Great Depression saw a slow-down in the advancements but World War II and some of the basic research happening around the world caused an explosion as governments dumped money into build-ups. That's when DuPont cranked out parachutes and tires and even got involved in building the Savannah Hanford plutonium plant as a part of the Manhattan Project. This took them away from things like nylon, which led to riots. We were clearly in the era of synthetics used in clothing.  Leading up to the war and beyond, every supply chain of natural goods got constrained. And so synthetic replacements for these were being heavily researched and new uses were being discovered all over the place. Add in assembly lines and we were pumping out things to bring joy or improve lives at a constant clip. BASF had been making dyes since the 1860s but chemicals are chemicals and had developed polystyrene in the 1930s and continued to grow and benefit from both licensing and developing other materials like Styropor insulating foam.    Dow Chemical had been founded in the 1800s by Herbert Henry Dow, but became an important part of the supply chain for the growing synthetics businesses, working with Corning to produce silicones and producing styrene and magnesium for light parts for aircraft. They too would help in nuclear developments, managing the Rocky Flats plutonium triggers plant and then napalm, Agent Orange, breast implants, plastic bottles, and anything else we could mix chemicals with. Expanded polystyrene led to plastics in cups, packaging, and anything else. By the 60s we were fully in a synthetic world. A great quote from 1967's “The Graduate” was “I want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening? Plastics.” The future was here. And much of that future involved injection molding machines, now more and more common. Many a mainframe was encased in metal but with hard plastics we could build faceplates out of plastic. The IBM mainframes had lots of blinking lights recessed into holes in plastic with metal switches sticking out. Turns out people get shocked less when the whole thing isn't metal.  The minicomputers were smaller but by the time of the PDP-11 there were plastic toggles and a plastic front on the chassis. The Altair 8800 ended up looking a lot like that, but bringing that technology to the hobbyist. By the time the personal computer started to go mainstream, the full case was made of injection molding. The things that went inside computers were increasingly plastic as well. Going back to the early days of mechanical computing, gears were made out of metal. But tubes were often mounted on circuits screwed to wooden boards. Albert Hanson had worked on foil conductors that were laminated to insulating boards going back to 1903 but Charles Ducas patented electroplating circuit patterns in 1927 and Austrian Paul Eisler invented printed circuits for radio sets in the mid-1930s. John Sargrove then figured out he could spray metal onto plastic boards made of Bakelite in the late 1930s and uses expanded to proximity fuzes in World War II and then Motorola helped bring them into broader consumer electronics in the early 1950s. Printed circuit boards then moved to screen printing metallic paint onto various surfaces and Harry Rubinstein patented printing components, which helped pave the way for integrated circuits. Board lamination and etching was added to the process and conductive inks used in the creation might be etched copper, plated substrates or even silver inks as are used in RFID tags. We've learned over time to make things easier and with more precise machinery we were able to build smaller and smaller boards, chips, and eventually 3d printed electronics - even the Circuit Scribe to draw circuits. Doug Engelbart's first mouse was wood but by the time Steve Jobs insisted they be mass produceable they'd been plastic for Englebart and then the Alto. Computer keyboards had evolved out of the flexowriter and so become plastic as well. Even the springs that caused keys to bounce back up eventually replaced with plastic and rubberized materials in different configurations.  Plastic is great for insulating electronics, they are poor conductors of heat, they're light, they're easy to mold, they're hardy, synthetics require less than 5% of the oil we use, and they're recyclable. Silicone, another polymer, is a term coined by the English chemist F.S. Kipping in 1901. His academic work while at University College, Nottingham would kickstart the synthetic rubber and silicone lubricant industries. But that's not silicon. That's an element and a tetravalent metalloid at that. Silicon was discovered in 1787 by Antoine Lavoisier. Yup the same guy that taught Du Pont. While William Shockley started off with germanium and silicon when he was inventing the transistor, it was Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce who realized how well it acted as an insulator or a semiconductor it ended up used in what we now think of as the microchip. But again, that's not a plastic… Plastic of course has its drawbacks. Especially since we don't consume plastics in moderation. It takes 400 to a thousand years do decompose many plastics. The rampant use in every aspect of our lives has led to animals dying after eating plastic, or getting caught in islands of it as plastic is all over the oceans and other waterways around the world. That's 5 and a quarter trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean that weighs a combined 270,000 tons with another 8 million pieces flowing in there each and every day. In short, the overuse of plastics is hurting our environment. Or at least our inability to control our rampant consumerism is leading to their overuse. They do melt at low temperatures, which can work as a good or bad thing. When they do, they can release hazardous fumes like PCBs and dioxins. Due to many of the chemical compounds they often rely on fossil fuels and so are derived from non-renewable resources. But they're affordable and represent a trillion dollar industry. And we can all do better at recycling - which of course requires energy and those bonds break down over time so we can't recycle forever. Oh and the byproducts from the creation of products is downright toxic. We could argue that plastic is one of the most important discoveries in the history of humanity. That guy from The Graduate certainly would. We could argue it's one of the worst. But we also just have to realize that our modern lives, and especially all those devices we carry around, wouldn't be possible without plastics and other synthetic polymers. There's a future where instead of running out to the store for certain items, we just 3d print them. Maybe we even make filament from printed materials we no longer need. The move to recyclable materials for packaging helps reduce the negative impacts of plastics. But so does just consuming less. Except devices. We obviously need the latest and greatest of each of those all the time!  Here's the thing, half of plastics are single-purpose. Much of it is packaging like containers and wrappers. But can you imagine life without the 380 million tons of plastics the world produces a year? Just look around right now. Couldn't tell you how many parts of this microphone, computer, and all the cables and adapters are made of it. How many couldn't be made by anything else. There was a world without plastics for thousands of years of human civilization. We'll look at one of those single-purpose plastic-heavy industries called fast food in an episode soon. But it's not the plastics that are such a problem. It's the wasteful rampant consumerism. When I take out my recycling I can't help but think that what goes in the recycling versus compost versus garbage is as much a symbol of who I want to be as what I actually end up eating and relying on to live. And yet, I remain hopeful for the world in that these discoveries can actually end up bringing us back into harmony with the world around us without reverting to luddites and walking back all of these amazing developments like we see in the science fiction dystopian futures.

n 1907 a man named Leo Baekeland changed our world forever. Leo was a Belgian chemist best known for his invention of Velox Photographic Paper in 1893. In 1907 Leo was deemed "The Father of the Plastic Industry" for his invention of Bakelite, an inexpensive, nonflammable, and versatile plastic which started the modern plastic industry we know today.Now there is an amazing documentary about Leo's life and his invention Bakelite called "All Things Bakelite: The Age of Plastic." We have on the show today two men who brought this project to life. We have the Director of the film John Maher, and the Executive Producer of the film Hugh Karraker. Hugh is also the Great Grandson of Leo Baekeland. Together they talk about the movie, Hugh's incredible great grandfather and how he changed our lives forever with his invention of plastic.

n 1907 a man named Leo Baekeland changed our world forever. Leo was a Belgian chemist best known for his invention of Velox Photographic Paper in 1893. In 1907 Leo was deemed "The Father of the Plastic Industry" for his invention of Bakelite, an inexpensive, nonflammable, and versatile plastic which started the modern plastic industry we know today. Now there is an amazing documentary about Leo's life and his invention Bakelite called "All Things Bakelite: The Age of Plastic." We have on the show today two men who brought this project to life. We have the Director of the film John Maher, and the Executive Producer of the film Hugh Karraker. Hugh is also the Great Grandson of Leo Baekeland. Together they talk about the movie, Hugh's incredible great grandfather and how he changed our lives forever with his invention of plastic.

On this day in 1887, U.S. President Grover Cleveland signed the Dawes General Allotment Act into law. / On this day in 1909, Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announced his invention of Bakelite to the public. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Episode: 3084 Leo Baekeland and Bakelite.  Today, Bakelite.

EP116 Gives us an insight in the live, work and inventions of Leo #Baekeland. A chemist who started his career in #Belgium and moved to the USA to become one of the main inventors of synthetic plastic with his invention of Bakelite. #RHOB

On this day in 1909, Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announced his invention of Bakelite to the public. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Ever since its invention by Leo Baekeland in 1907, plastic has transformed our world in countless ways. It is simply not possible to imagine a world without plastics: everywhere you look, you will find plastics. But what was a miracle for us, has turned out to be a disaster for the environment. Is it too late or can advancements in technology prevent a possible ecological disaster.

A couple of decades after Leo Baekeland invented the first fully synthetic plastic – Bakelite – plastics were pouring out of labs around the world. There was polystyrene, often used for packaging; nylon, popularised by stockings; polyethylene, the stuff of plastic bags. As the Second World War stretched natural resources, production of plastics ramped up to fill the gap. And when the war ended, exciting new products like Tupperware hit the consumer market. These days, plastics are everywhere. We make so much plastic, it takes about eight percent of oil production – half for raw material, half for energy. And despite its image problem, and growing evidence of environmental problems, plastic production is set to double in the next 20 years. Producer: Ben Crighton Editors: Richard Knight and Richard Vadon (Image: Plastic bottle tops, Credit: Taweesak Thiprod/Shutterstock)

Plaståldern satte igång i början av 1900-talet. Sedan dess har mängden av plastprylar i olika plastmaterial bara ökat. Men vad händer med plast som blir hundra år gammal? Åldras den med värdighet? 1907 tog den belgisk-amerikanske uppfinnaren Leo Baekeland patent på hårdplasten bakelit ett starkt material som klarar värme och kunde ersätta metall. Medan 1900-talet fortskred utvecklades allt fler plastsorter som snart började användas i snart sagt alla produktkategorier. På loppmarknaden kan vi idag hitta plastföremål som är uppåt hundra år gamla. För en vanlig konsument är det dock svårt att skilja på olika plastsorter och kunskapen om hur materialen åldras är låg. Samlaren och designkännaren Thomas Lindblad, som har intresserat sig för design av bruksföremål och samlat på plast i tjugo år berättar för Loppmarknadsarkeologerna om plastsorternas historik och egenskaper. Han förklarar också skillnaden mellan hur stabila och mindre stabila plastsorter föräldras med åldern. Programledare: Maja Åström och Tommie Jönsson Loppmarknadsarkeologerna görs av produktionsbolaget Rundfunk Media för Sveriges Radio

Dr. Leo Baekeland, the inventor of the first synthetic plastic, was a wealthy man at a young age thanks to his innovation in photograph developing. But it was his work with phenol and formaldehyde that would help usher in the age of plastics. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Today's radio feature says bravo for bakelite, an early form of plastic which brought radio to the people. When radios were first manufactured in the first twenty years of this century, they looked more like an experiment in a physics laboratory than something which was designed to entertain. Then some firms started using a thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin for their cases, formed from an elimination reaction of phenol with formaldehyde, usually with a wood flour filler. It was developed in 1907–1909 by Belgian chemist Dr. Leo Baekeland. Wikipedia has more here. In this programme, broadcast on the Queens Day holiday in 1998, we visit the home of Willem Bos who has scoured the flea markets in the Netherlands is search of his passion for bakelite. Thanks too to Scott MacLeod Liddle for his terrific photo on Flickr.