IT IS a busy evening in New York and a man is asking people on the street at random if they are familiar with Bakelite. None of them knows what it is, but most think it is related to food. We meet ...

When Leo Hendrik Baekeland invented Bakelite in 1907, he changed the world — ushering in the Age of Plastics and transforming the way people lived. The phenolic resin took off first as a superior, ...

AROUND the turn of the 20th century, Leo Henricus Arthur Baekeland, a Belgian-born inventor, moved into a three-story turreted house known as Snug Rock in what was then the Harmony Park section of ...

Anaheim, Calif. — A bit of Hollywood excitement came to the Society of Plastics Engineers annual conference — a continuous screening of the documentary "All Things Bakelite," produced by Leo Baekeland ...

The passage of time, especially that inhabited by humans, has often been named based on the materials we use during that time. The Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages are, for instance, a three-age system ...

Simply sign up to the Style myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox. Who first made Bakelite jewellery collectable? Some say Coco Chanel, after she introduced it in the 1920s. Others cite Andy ...