Mondo Knows Facts
Bakelite was the first plastic made entirely by people
Leo Baekeland combined phenol with formaldehyde in 1907 to make a hard resin that would not melt again Earlier plastics were derived from cellulose and softened when heated, but Bakelite set into a rigid network that could not be remelted. It was moulded into electrical fittings, radios and telephone handsets because it insulated well and resisted heat. Baekeland's patent described the controlled heating and pressure that made the reaction reliable. It sits in Mondo's technology collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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Tags: materials, plastics, chemistry
Bakelite was the first plastic made entirely by people: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Leo Baekeland combined phenol with formaldehyde in 1907 to make a hard resin that would not melt again. The figure is taken from Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a technology fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Technology shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.