Material History: Bakelite (1909)

Bakelite, the worlds first synthetic plastic introduced in 1909, became "the material of a thousand uses".

This thermosetting material developed by Leo Baekeland, led plastics to be described by many as the material of the 20th century.

Because of its non-conductor properties and it being particularly suitable for mass production moulding processes made Bakelite material useful as the exterior skin of electrical appliances, and thus allowed the asethetic of consumer products of that time to take on new shapes.