Knobs and thingummyjigs

I have not spoken this particular word for some time. 

I suppose that in certain social situations and amongst those who would consider themselves either experts, enthusiasts or just collectors it would be mentioned frequently. It is a word synonymous with the spirit of scientific and commercial co-operation. 

It is Bakelite. 

To those of a certain generation, and from which in my 6th decade I would actually exclude myself, anything made or fashioned in Bakelite still holds a certain style, mystique and appeal. I do come across it on a periodic basis in residential properties of the halcyon period of its production and availability in such things as electrical socket and light switch facings, drawer and cupboard knobs, casings of older audio and visual appliances and as part of objets' d'Art and other miscellanea. 

Bakelite has claimed its place in human history as the first synthetic plastic and amazingly this was in the first decade of the 20th Century. 

There had been earlier experimentation and production of substitutes for increasingly scarce natural resources. A shortage of ivory caused enough concern amongst the manufacturers of billiard balls to announce a competition to find a replacement. 

Two brothers in 1863, the Wesley-Hyatts found a way to combine natural compounds of cellulose nitrate and camphor into what became celluloid. 

Bakelite, in being synthetic represented a major innovation due to the hard work and not without disappointment and set-backs of Leo Baekeland (1863 -1944). The entry in his laboratory notebook at the time of his discovery reads  

"I found tube broken perhaps in irregular expansion but the reactions seems to have been satisfactory because the resulting stick was very hard and below where there was some unmixed liquid A there was an end (?) of solidified matter yellowish and hard and entirely similar to the product obtained by simply heating A alone in sealed tube. This looks promising and it will be worth while to determine in how far this mass which I will call D is able to make moulded materials either alone or in conjunctions with other solid materials as for instance asbestos, casein, zinc oxid (sic), starch, different inorganic powders and lamp black and thus make a substitute for celluloid and for hard rubber"

Bakelite

The properties and uses of Bakelite illustrated its versatility.

Bakelite could be moulded and very quickly, which was an enormous advantage in mass production processes where many identical units were produced one after the other. 

Bakelite was a thermosetting resin—that is, once moulded, it retains its shape even if heated or subjected to various solvents.

 Bakelite was also particularly suitable for the emerging electrical and automobile industries because of its extraordinarily high resistance (not only to electricity, but to heat and chemical action as well). It was soon used for all non-conducting parts of radios and other electrical devices, such as bases and sockets for light bulbs and electron tubes, supports for any type of electrical components, automobile distributor caps and other insulators.

Along with its electrical uses, moulded Bakelite found a place in almost every area of modern life. From novelty jewellery and iron handles to telephones and washing-machines impellers, Bakelite was seen everywhere and was a constant presence in the technological infrastructure. The Bakelite Corporation adopted as its logo the mathematical symbol for infinity and the slogan, "The Material of a Thousand Uses," but they recognised no boundaries for their material.

The Achilles heel was however colour. The pure Bakelite resin was an iconic amber, and it could take other colours as well but unfortunately, it was quite brittle and had to be strengthened by "filling" with other substances, usually cellulose in the form of sawdust. 

After filling, all colours came out opaque at best and often dull and muddy. 

In my own experience I have only ever seen the mass produced black or dark brown incarnations . 

It would be inevitable that consumers who demanded greater choice and range of colours and finishes would ensure that Bakelite was replaced by other plastics that shared its desirable qualities, but could also capture the imagination of the new market trends amongst an aspirational and increasingly wealthy. 

Many examples of Bakelite products have however survived and to become sought after for their pioneering desirability, functional beauty and sheer collectability.