All through the day in a small leased building at Perth Amboy, N.J.,
a handful of men strove patiently to complete their first big order. When darkness approached, their only light was
an oil lantern, but with their improvised machinery they had nearly completed their work. It was time to start the second
hand steam engine which was to turn the stirrer in the 600 gallon still. Every minute counted, for the chemical reaction
might get out of control. Precious seconds passed while they hitched the steam engine to the still. More, before the
engine made but half a revolution, and then failed to function.
Even then, all was not lost. The engine disconnected, a dozen hands turned the stirrer for
a solid hour, while others passed buckets of alcohol to a man on a shaky platform who poured it into the still.
At last, by dint of main strength, the awkward job was completed amid great sighs of relief
... in the morning General Bakelite Company's first " huge " shipment of eight barrels of varnish would be on its way to Westinghouse
Electric and Manufacturing Company, which was pioneering in Bakelite Laminated production.
Suddenly, without a word to anyone, a " bright " young chemist, who had observed all operations
with inquisitive interest,picked up the lantern, jumped to the platform, opened the manhole door of the still, and stuck the
lantern into the opening to see results. The inevitable happened - one grand boom ! The alcohol vapour had exploded - fortunately
without doing serious personal injury, for the chemist had not put his head well over the manhole. The flames, however, made
short work of his shock of curly hair.
Thus, twenty five years ago, ended the first episode in Bakelite Corporation's history. Chemically
speaking, it started with the researches of phenol-aldehyde reaction conducted between 1905 and 1909 by Dr. L.H. Baekeland
in his laboratory at Yonkers, N.Y. Even as far back as 1907 commercial applications of Bakelite resinoid ( formidably
speaking, oxybenzlmethlenglycolanhydride ) began on a small scale. Soon Dr. Baekeland found he could no longer supply the
ever increasing demand for Bakelite materials from his own laboratory, so on October 10 1910, he formed the General Bakelite
Company. The plant was established at Perth Amboy, N.J., with L.M. Rossi in charge of production.
HOW BAEKELAND'S DISCOVERY STIMULATED RESEARCH IN PLASTICS
Dr Baekeland's announcement in 1909 that gave the world new and superior plastic materials
was received enthusiastically by industry as well as chemistry. At last, one of chemistry's greatest mysteries, which had
baffled such noted chemists as Baeyer, Kleeberg and Luft, had been solved.
J.W.Aylsworth, chemical consultant for Thomas Edison, saw the possibilities
for making better phonograph records out of this type of material. On September 23, 1910, Condesite Company of America, with
Kirk Brown as president, was formed to exploit the inventions of Aylsworth. In Chicago Adolph Karpen, of S.Karpen Bros,
had the idea that these materials might be used to produce superior varnishes for his furniture. He established the
Robert Kennedy Duncan Industrial Fellowship at the University of Kansas and selected L.V.Redman for the fellowship. Later
A.J. Weith and F.P. Brock were appointed assistants. On February 20, 1914, Redmanol Chemical Products Company was organized
to continue the prelimimary worl of Redman, Weith and Brock.
From the very beginning the predecessors of Bakelite Corporation had violent growing pains. Before
1913 General Bakelite outgrew its original building, added two one storey additions, later built a separate frame building,
then a three storey building, which was was supplemented with a great deal more space as the years rolled by. Redmanol
started in part of the Karpen plant, but soon had to take much larger quarters across the street. Condensite began in Edison's
Glen Ridge, N.J. plant, moved to much larger quarters in neighbouring Bloomfield, and later added floors and extra buildings
..... to be continued Jools
