Polymer Science and Technology

ROE-045

ASSIGNMENT-2

Jatin Sharma
1605251019
Chemical Engineering
Btech 2nd Year

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 Leo Bakeland

Leo Henricus Arthur Baekeland FRSE(Hon) (November 14, 1863 – February

23, 1944) was a Belgian-American chemist. He is best known for the inventions
of Velox photographic paper in 1893 and 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.

Early Life

Leo Baekeland was born in Ghent, Belgium, on November 14, 1863, the son of a
cobbler and a housemaid.[6] He told The Literary Digest: "The name is a Flemish
word meaning 'Land of Beacons.'"[7] He spent much of his early life in Ghent,
Belgium. He graduated with honours from the Ghent Municipal Technical School
and was awarded a scholarship by the City of Ghent[8]:102 to study chemistry at
the University of Ghent, which he entered in 1880.[2]:13 He acquired a
PhD maxima cum laude at the age of 21. After a brief appointment as Professor
of Physics and Chemistry at the Government Higher Normal School
in Bruges (1887-1889) he was appointed associate professor of chemistry at
Ghent in 1889. Baekeland married Céline Swarts, the daughter of his professor
Theodore Swarts and Celine (Platteau) Swarts, on August 8, 1889. They had
three children, George, Nina, and Jenny.

Career

In 1889, Baekeland and his wife took advantage of a travel scholarship to visit
universities in England and America.[1]:178[2]:14 They visited New York City, where
he met Professor Charles F. Chandler of Columbia University and Richard

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Anthony, of the E. and H.T. Anthony photographic company. Professor Charles F.
Chandler of Columbia University was influential in convincing Baekeland to stay in
the United States.[11] Baekeland had already invented a process to develop
photographic plates using water instead of other chemicals, which he had
patented in Belgium in 1887;[2]:13 [8]:127–129 Anthony saw potential in the young
chemist and offered him a job.[8]:130[12]
Baekeland worked for the Anthony company for two years, and in 1891 set up in
business for himself as a consulting chemist.[8]:130 However, a spell of illness and
disappearing funds made him rethink his actions and he decided to return to his
old interest of producing a photographic paper that would allow enlargements to
be printed by artificial light.[13] After two years of intensive effort he perfected the
process to produce the paper, which he named "Velox"; it was the first
commercially successful photographic paper. At the time the US was suffering a
recession and there were no investors or buyers for his proposed new product, so
Baekeland became partners with Leonard Jacobi and established the Nepera
Chemical Company in Nepera Park, Yonkers, New York.[8]:131–135[12]
In 1899, Jacobi, Baekeland, and Albert Hahn, a further associate, sold Nepera to
George Eastman of the Eastman Kodak Co. for $750,000.[14][15] Baekeland earned
approximately $215,000 net through the transaction.[8]:134–136[16]
In 1889, Baekeland and his wife took advantage of a travel scholarship to visit
universities in England and America.[1]:178[2]:14 They visited New York City, where
he met Professor Charles F. Chandler of Columbia University and Richard
Anthony, of the E. and H.T. Anthony photographic company. Professor Charles F.
Chandler of Columbia University was influential in convincing Baekeland to stay in
the United States.[11] Baekeland had already invented a process to develop
photographic plates using water instead of other chemicals, which he had
patented in Belgium in 1887;[2]:13 [8]:127–129 Anthony saw potential in the young
chemist and offered him a job.[8]:130[12]
Baekeland worked for the Anthony company for two years, and in 1891 set up in
business for himself as a consulting chemist.[8]:130 However, a spell of illness and
disappearing funds made him rethink his actions and he decided to return to his
old interest of producing a photographic paper that would allow enlargements to
be printed by artificial light.[13] After two years of intensive effort he perfected the
process to produce the paper, which he named "Velox"; it was the first
commercially successful photographic paper. At the time the US was suffering a
recession and there were no investors or buyers for his proposed new product, so
Baekeland became partners with Leonard Jacobi and established the Nepera
Chemical Company in Nepera Park, Yonkers, New York.[8]:131–135[12]
In 1899, Jacobi, Baekeland, and Albert Hahn, a further associate, sold Nepera to
George Eastman of the Eastman Kodak Co. for $750,000.[14][15] Baekeland earned
approximately $215,000 net through the transaction.[8]:134–136[16]

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 Invention of Bakelite

Having been successful with Velox, Baekeland set out to find another promising
area for chemical development. As he had done with Velox, he looked for a
problem that offered "the best chance for the quickest possible results". [17] Asked
why he entered the field of synthetic resins, Baekeland answered that his
intention was to make money.[11] By the 1900s, chemists had begun to recognize
that many of the natural resins and fibers were polymeric, a term introduced in
1833 by Jöns Jacob Berzelius.[19][20] Adolf von Baeyer had experimented with
phenols and aldehydes in 1872, particularly Pyrogallol and benzaldehyde.[21] He
created a "black guck" which he considered useless and irrelevant to his search
for synthetic dyes.[8]:115[22] Baeyer's student, Werner Kleeberg, experimented with
phenol and formaldehyde in 1891, but as Baekeland noted "could not crystallize
this mess, nor purify it to constant composition, nor in fact do anything with it
once produced".[21]
Baekeland began to investigate the reactions of phenol and formaldehyde.[11] He
familiarized himself with previous work and approached the field systematically,
carefully controlling and examining the effects of temperature, pressure and the
types and proportions of materials used.[2][8]:144–145
The first application that appeared promising was the development of a synthetic
replacement for shellac (made from the excretion of lac beetles). Baekeland
produced a soluble phenol-formaldehyde shellac called "Novolak" but concluded
that its properties were inferior. It never became a big market success, but still
exists as Novolac.[23]
Baekeland continued to explore possible combinations of phenol and
formaldehyde, intrigued by the possibility that such materials could be used in
molding. By controlling the pressure and temperature applied to phenol and
formaldehyde, he produced his dreamed-of hard moldable
plastic: Bakelite.[23] Bakelite was made from phenol, then known as carbolic acid,
and formaldehyde. The chemical name of Bakelite is
polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride.[4] In compression molding, the resin is
generally combined with fillers such as wood or asbestos, before pressing it
directly into the final shape of the product. Baekeland's process patent for making

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insoluble products of phenol and formaldehyde was filed in July 1907, and
granted on December 7, 1909. In February 1909 Baekeland officially announced
his achievement at a meeting of the New York section of the American Chemical
Society.[24]
In 1917 Baekeland became a professor by special appointment at Columbia
University.[25]:87[26] The Smithsonian contains documents from the County of West
Chester Court House in White Plains, NY, indicating that he was admitted to U. S.
Citizenship on December 16, 1919.[27][28]
In 1922, after patent litigation favorable to Baekeland, the General Bakelite Co.,
which he had founded in 1910, along with the Condensite Co. founded by
Aylesworth, and the Redmanol Chemical Products Co. founded by L.V. Redman,
were merged into the Bakelite Corporation.[24]
The invention of Bakelite marks the beginning of the age of plastics.[4] Bakelite
was the first plastic invented that retained its shape after being
heated. Radios, telephones and electrical insulators were made of Bakelite
because of its excellent electrical insulation and heat-resistance. Soon its
applications spread to most branches of industry.[4]
Baekeland received many awards and honors, including the Perkin Medal in 1916
and the Franklin Medal in 1940.[17] In 1978 he was posthumously inducted into
the National Inventors Hall of Fame at Akron, Ohio.[10]
At Baekeland's death in 1944, the world production of Bakelite was ca. 175,000
tons, and it was used in over 15,000 different products. He held more than 100
patents,[17] including processes for the separation of copper and cadmium, and
for the impregnation of wood.
==Decline and death (1944)
As Baekeland got older he became more eccentric, getting into fierce battles with
his son and presumptive heir over salary and other issues. He sold the General
Bakelite Company to Union Carbide in 1939 and, at his son's prompting, he
retired. He became a recluse, eating all of his meals from cans and becoming
obsessed with developing an immense tropical garden on his winter estate
in Coconut Grove, Florida.[29] He died of a cerebral hemorrhage in a sanatorium
in Beacon, New York.[30] Baekeland is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy
Hollow, New York.[31]

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 Charles Goodyear

Charles Goodyear (December 29, 1800 – July 1, 1860) was an American self-
taught chemist[1][2] and manufacturing engineer who developed vulcanized
rubber, for which he received patent number 3633 from the United States Patent
Officeon June 15, 1844.[3]
Goodyear is credited with inventing the chemical process to create and
manufacture pliable, waterproof, moldable rubber. However,
the Mesoamericans used a more primitive stabilized rubber for balls and other
objects as early as 1600 BC.[4]
Goodyear's discovery of the vulcanization process followed five years of searching
for a more stable rubber and stumbling upon the effectiveness of heating after
Thomas Hancock.[5] His discovery initiated decades of successful rubber
manufacturing in the Lower Naugatuck Valley in Connecticut, as rubber was
adopted to multiple applications, including footwear and tires. The Goodyear Tire
& Rubber Company is named after him.

Early life

Charles Goodyear was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Amasa
Goodyear, and the oldest of six children. His father was a descendant of Stephen
Goodyear of London, Middlesex, England, one of the founders of the colony
of New Haven in 1638.[6]
In 1814, Charles left his home and went to Philadelphia to learn the hardware
business. He worked industriously until he was twenty-one years old, and then,
returning to Connecticut, entered into partnership in his father’s business
in Naugatuck, CT where they manufactured not only ivory and metal buttons, but
also a variety of agricultural implements.

Early Career

On August 3, 1824 he married Clarissa Beecher. Two years later the family
moved to Philadelphia, and there Charles Goodyear opened a hardware store.
This is where he did most of his work. His specialties were the valuable
agricultural implements that his firm had been manufacturing, and after the first
distrust of domestically made goods had worn away—for all agricultural

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implements were imported from England at that time—he found himself heading
a successful business.
This continued to increase until it seemed that he was to be a wealthy man.
Between 1829 and 1830 he broke down in health, being troubled with dyspepsia.
At the same time, the failure of a number of business endeavors seriously
embarrassed his firm. They struggled on, however, for some time, but were
finally obliged to fail.
Between the years 1831 and 1832, Goodyear heard about gum elastic (natural
rubber) and examined every article that appeared in the newspapers relative to
this new material. The Roxbury Rubber Company, of Boston, had been for some
time experimenting with the gum, and believed it had found means for
manufacturing goods from it. It had a large plant and was sending its goods all
over the country. It was some of Roxbury's goods that first attracted Goodyear's
attention. Soon after this, Goodyear visited New York, and his attention went
to life preservers, and it struck him that the tube used for inflation was not very
effective nor well-made. Therefore, upon returning to Philadelphia, he made
tubes and brought them back to New York and showed them to the manager of
the Roxbury Rubber Company.
The manager was pleased with the ingenuity that Goodyear had shown in
manufacturing the tubes. He confessed to Goodyear that the business was on the
verge of ruin, and that his products had to be tested for a year before it could be
determined if they were perfect or not. To their surprise, thousands of US$ worth
of goods that they had determined to be of good quality were being returned, the
gum having rotted, making them useless. Goodyear at once made up his mind to
experiment on this gum and see if he could overcome the problems with these
rubber products.
However, when he returned to Philadelphia, a creditor had him arrested and
imprisoned. While there, he tried his first experiments with India rubber. The
gum was inexpensive then, and by heating it and working it in his hands, he
managed to incorporate in it a certain amount of magnesia which produced a
beautiful white compound and appeared to take away the stickiness
He thought he had discovered the secret, and through the kindness of friends was
able to improve his invention in New Haven. The first thing that he made was
shoes, and he used his own house for grinding, calendering and vulcanizing, with
the help of his wife and children. His compound at this time consisted of India
rubber, lampblack, and magnesia, the whole dissolved in turpentine and spread
upon the flannel cloth which served as the lining for the shoes. It was not long,
however, before he discovered that the gum, even treated this way, became
sticky. His creditors, completely discouraged, decided that he would not be
allowed to go further in his research.
Goodyear, however, had no mind to stop here in his experiments. Selling his
furniture and placing his family in a quiet boarding place, he went to New York
and in an attic, helped by a friendly druggist, continued his experiments. His next
step was to compound the rubber with magnesia and then boil it in quicklime and
water. This appeared to solve the problem. At once it was noticed abroad that he
had treated India rubber to lose its stickiness, and he received international
acclamation. He seemed on the high road to success, until one day he noticed
that a drop of weak acid, falling on the cloth, neutralized the alkali and
immediately caused the rubber to become soft again. This proved to him that his
process was not a successful one. He therefore continued experimenting, and
after preparing his mixtures in his attic in New York, would walk three miles to a
mill in Greenwich Village to try various experiments.

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In the line of these, he discovered that rubber dipped in nitric acid formed a
surface cure, and he made many products with this acid cure which were held in
high regard, and he even received a letter of commendation from Andrew
Jackson.
Exposure to harsh chemicals, such as nitric acid and lead oxide, adversely
affected his health, and once nearly suffocated him by gas generated in his
laboratory. Goodyear survived, but the resulting fever came close to taking his
life.
Together with an old business partner, he built up a factory and began to make
clothing, life preservers, rubber shoes, and a great variety of rubber goods. They
also had a large factory with special machinery, built at Staten Island, where he
moved his family and again had a home of his own. Just about this time, when
everything looked bright, the panic of 1837 came and swept away the entire
fortune of his associate and left Goodyear penniless.
His next move was to go to Boston, where he became acquainted with J. Haskins,
of the Roxbury Rubber Company. Goodyear found him to be a good friend, who
lent him money and stood by him when no one would have anything to do with
the visionary inventor. A man named Mr. Chaffee was also exceedingly kind and
ever ready to lend a listening ear to his plans, and to also assist him in a
pecuniary way. About this time it occurred to Mr. Chaffee that much of the
trouble that they had experienced in working India rubber might come from the
solvent that was used. He therefore invented a huge machine for doing the
mixing by mechanical means. The goods that were made in this way were
beautiful to look at, and it appeared, as it had before, that all difficulties were
overcome
Goodyear discovered a new method for making rubber shoes and received a
patent which he sold to the Providence Company in Rhode Island. However, a
method had not yet been found to process rubber so that it would withstand hot
and cold temperatures and acids, and so the rubber goods were constantly
growing sticky, decomposing and being returned to the manufacturers.

Perfection and Patent of Vulcanization

Several years earlier, Goodyear had, however, started a small factory

at Springfield, Massachusetts, to which he moved his primary operations in 1842.
The factory was run largely by Nelson and Henry Goodyear, Charles' brothers.
Charles Goodyear's brother-in-law, Mr. De Forest, who was a wealthy woolen
manufacturer, became involved as well. The work of making the invention
practical was continued. In 1844, in Springfield, the process was sufficiently
perfected that Goodyear felt it safe to take out a patent. The first vulcanization of
rubber is considered one of the major "firsts" that contributes to the City of
Springfield's nickname, "The City of Firsts." [7] In 1844, Goodyear's brother Henry
introduced mechanical mixing of the mixture in place of the use of solvents.

Court cases regarding vulcanization

In the year 1852 Goodyear went to Europe, a trip that he had long planned, and
saw Thomas Hancock, then in the employ of Charles Macintosh & Company.
Hancock claimed to have invented vulcanization independently, and received a
British patent, initiated in 1843, but finalized in 1844. In 1855, in the last of three
patent disputes with fellow British rubber pioneer, Stephen Moulton, Hancock's
patent was challenged with the claim that Hancock had copied Goodyear.
Goodyear attended the trial. If Hancock lost, Goodyear stood to have his own
British patent application granted, allowing him to claim royalties from both

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Hancock and Moulton. Both had examined Goodyear's vulcanized rubber in 1842,
but several chemists testified that it would not have been possible to determine
how it was made by studying it. Hancock prevailed.[citation needed]
Despite his misfortune with patents, Goodyear wrote, “In reflecting upon the
past, as relates to these branches of industry, the writer is not disposed to
repine, and say that he has planted, and others have gathered the fruits. The
advantages of a career in life should not be estimated exclusively by the standard
of dollars and cents, as is too often done. Man has just cause for regret when he
sows and no one reaps.”[8]

Death and Legacy

Goodyear died on July 1, 1860, while traveling to see his dying daughter. After
arriving in New York, he was informed that she had already died. He collapsed
and was taken to the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City, where he died at the
age of 59. He is buried in New Haven at Grove Street Cemetery.[9]
In 1898, almost four decades after his death, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber
Company was founded and named after Goodyear by Frank Seiberling.[10]
On February 8, 1976, he was among six individuals selected for induction into
the National Inventors Hall of Fame.[11]
In Woburn, Massachusetts, there is an elementary school named after
him.[12] The Government of France made him a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur
in 1855.
The ACS Rubber Division awards a medal named in Goodyear's honor,
the Charles Goodyear Medal. The medal honors principal inventors, innovators,
and developers whose contributions resulted in a significant change to the nature
of the rubber industry.
The Goodyear welt, a technique in shoemaking, was named after and in honor of
its inventor, Charles' son; Charles Goodyear Jr.[13]