Bakelite Conquers the World

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Looking Back. In May 1910 the company Rütgerswerke founded its subsidiary
Bakelite GmbH in the village of Erkner near Berlin, Germany. Following a patent
granted to Leo Hendrik Baekeland a plastic was produced here on an industrial
scale for the first time ever.
Bakelite Conquers the World
GERHARD KOSSMEHL
hen in 1859 Julius Rütgers (Fig. 1)
founded an impregnating establishment for railroad ties in the
Brandenburg fishing village of Erkner, located between woods and lakes on the
eastbound railroad line from
Berlin, no one could have
guessed how important this
company would eventually become. Quite soon
creosote, which initially
came from England, became the impregnating
agent of choice. Since
the price of this material was constantly rising the
far-sighted company decided in 1860 to manufacture
creosote itself in its own production plant for coal tar.
Rütgers obtained the raw
material from surrounding town gas producers
where as a burdensome
waste product it gave rise
to problems in its disposal. This, the largest
tar products factory in
Germany, soon grew into a
site for the recovery of substances present in tar which supplied the rising chemical industry of the late nineteenth century with starting materials for numerous syntheses.
W
First Synthetic Resins
from Erkner
In 1890 Gustav Kraemer and Adolf Spilker described the isolation of indene and
cumarone from coal tar and the indenecumarone resins obtained on treatment
of both hydrocarbons with sulfuric acid
Translated from Kunststoffe 1/2010, pp. 10–13
Article as PDF-File at www.kunststoffeinternational.com; Document Number: PE110321
[1]. In this way the first fully synthetic artificial resins having thermoplastic characteristics were described. These synthetic resins played and indeed today still play
an important role as additives in rubber
Now a collector’s item: Black telephone with dial made from
Bakelite in use up to the 1980s
production, in printing inks, paints and
adhesives and in other industrial products but by no means as primary materials (thermoplastics).
The number of constituents recovered
from coal tar rose steadily. In 1860 nine
constituents were known. In 1909 Max
Weger described about 90 compounds
isolated with certainty with about a further 150 detected or certainly presumed
[2, 3]. Today well over more than 1,000
are known.
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An Unloved Resinous
Reaction Product
In 1872 Adolf Baeyer was working in
Berlin on the reactions of phenol. He
treated it with formaldehyde and obtained
a resinous product in a hydrochloric acid
solution. This product did not have
a well defined melting point
and could not be obtained in crystalline
form [4]. The
aesthetic organic chemist did
not pursue the
development of
the resinous
product any further because he
could not characterize it satisfactorily with the methods then
available.
Afterwards this reaction was
taken up by many chemists.
Some names may be briefly
mentioned: Werner Kleeberg
who in 1891 obtained only an oily
resinous substance which was neither soluble nor fusible [5]. In 1899
Arthur Smith was granted a British
patent for a resin which at 100°C hardens in a few days. Mentioned only in summary here is the work carried out from
1902 to 1907 by the Austrian Adolf Luft,
the Englishman Henry Story and the
British electrical engineer James Swinburne which although achieving advances
in production did not make a breakthrough with their paint raw materials,
fabric impregnation agents and, for example, imitation amber. The most successful
initially was Carl Heinrich Meyer who in
1902 launched onto the market a product
by the name of Laccain as a furniture lacquer (substitute for the ever more expensive shellac). Since furniture treated with
Laccain reeked of phenol for a long time
after and darkened markedly this product
was not blessed with longer-term success.
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The Production of the
First Fully Synthetic Resin
Fig. 1. Julius Rütgers, founder of Rütgerswerke
Success with Pressure at
Elevated Temperature
Leo Hendrik Baekeland, an American
hailing originally from Belgium (Fig. 2),
achieved the breakthrough to a usable
product. In 1907 in addition to other
patents he applied in the United States for
the so-called “heat-pressure patent” [6].
With great farsightedness this describes
both a lacquer raw material as well as materials with and without fillers and their
diverse applications for the manufacture
of articles of common daily use. He particularly emphasized that this material
should be suitable as an insulating material. Already in 1907 he had the trade
name “Bakelite” protected.
When in 1899 Leo Hendrik Baekeland
had sold his patents for then modern photographic papers to George Eastman for
a six-figure dollar sum he turned his attention to electrochemical questions and
recognized that the most important problem for the rising electrical industry lay
in the development of a good insulating
material. Accordingly, in the winter semester of 1900 to 1901 he studied electrical engineering at the Charlottenburg Institute of Technology in Berlin. In 1904
he converted his private research laboratory in Yonkers, New Jersey, USA, into a
pilot plant for the condensation of phenol with formaldehyde. His objective was
to develop a new “material that should be
more durable than wood, lighter than
iron and less perishable than rubber and
also keep electricity under control“ [7].
He also published the results of his condensation experiments in German technical journals [8].
In 1909 Max Weger was Director of Laboratories at Rütgerswerke. Large volumes
of phenol were obtained in tar distillation. Although it was employed as a disinfectant, abundant amounts were still
left over. A novel application for phenol
was sought. Max Weger read the publications of Leo Hendrik Baekeland with
great attention. In June/July 1909 Rütgerswerke acquired the patent rights for
continental Europe and commissioned
Max Weger to implement the “Baekeland
process” on an industrial scale. In the late
summer of the same year with the assistance of Baekeland, who had come to
Erkner for this work, the first batches were
produced under sometimes hazardous
conditions. These were immediately
passed on to Berlin companies in the electrical industry for testing as electrical insulating material. For synthesis in accordance with the heat-pressure patent the
Bakelizer “Old Faithful” used in the United States was replicated and employed for
attaining a high-grade product.
The first expert opinion on Bakelite
came from Siemens Cable Works. In their
annual report of October 31, 1909, it is
judged to be a good new insulating material: “It is entirely heat-resistant and incombustible, can be … lathed, drilled,
milled and also readily manufactured by
compression molding which in value is
equivalent to our rubber-asbestos sheets
but whose price will probably be lower.”
Some other sectors, such as button
manufacturers, the paint industry and
Fig. 3. Max Weger, first Technical Director and
Managing Director of Bakelite GmbH BerlinErkner
furniture industry, also paid attention to
the novel material. Finally, natural resins
were becoming ever more scarce and
more expensive.
The First Plastics Factories
in the World
Rütgerswerke, where the synthetic resin,
Bakelite, was first produced on a modest
scale in a hut, resolved to found a dedicated company for producing this material. Thus, on May 25, 1910, Bakelite
GmbH Berlin-Erkner was recognized
publicly as the first plastics factory in the
world, similar recognition going to Leo
Hendrik Baekeland. Max Weger became
the first Technical Director and Managing Director (Fig. 3). Demand for the new
material grew hesitantly but with a rising
trend. Accordingly, Rütgerswerke decided in 1913 to build a dedicated factory in
Erkner on the eastern side of the river
Flakenfließ (Plant I) which started Bakelite production in 1916 and reached its
full capacity in 1921. In the mid-1930s
this company was the largest compression
molding manufacturer in Europe.
Max Weger led the company with great
prudence and much success. He was highly regarded both in his own company and
in his specialist field. In 1929 he was
awarded an honorary doctorate by the
Charlottenburg Institute of Technology
in Berlin.
In October 1910 Leo Hendrik Baekeland founded the General Bakelite Corporation, Yonkers near New York, USA,
which started production in 1911. An
agreement for intensive exchange of
know-how was reached between the two >
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Fig. 2. Leo Hendrik Baekeland, inventor of
Bakelite
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companies which was of benefit to improvements in production.
tured in Iserlohn-Lethmate and at Erkner
Phenoplast. In 1953 Plant II was completely rebuilt and started up in Erkner
while Plant I was shut down.
In the German Democratic Republic
(GDR) due to the scarcity of raw materials (e.g. deep-drawing sheet) Phenoplast
played an outstanding role for many
branches of industry. In Zwickau the Trabant was manufactured from 1957 to
1991 with a Phenoplast body (Fig. 7). The
material specially developed for this purpose was manufactured at VEB Plasta
Erkner and processed in Zwickau to form
the body parts with cotton as support material, which body parts surrounded the
steel frame with a plastic skin.
Bakelite, the Material of 1,000
Opportunities
The 1920s saw the start of the triumphant
progress of this synthetic resin with its
technically outstanding properties. “The
material of 1,000 opportunities”came not
just from Erkner, but also from many factories throughout the world. Soon there
was no aspect of life that did not involve
this unique plastic generated by the art of
chemists and engineers.
The alarm clock with a Bakelite housing aroused sleepers, the comb, shaving
brush and hair dryer were lying ready in
the bathroom, kitchen utensils, cutlery,
pot and pan handles made from the same
material were in the kitchen, vacuum
cleaners and other devices were to be
found around the house: fountain pens,
the stand for writing implements, the
desk lamp, and above all the black telephone together with its dial which was in
use right up to the 1980s (Title picture) and
many other things besides. Ladies prized
History Brought Up to Date
Fig. 4. Volksempfänger (people’s receiver) – the
housing consisted of fast curing phenolic resin
molding compound filled with sawdust
from wood, they were manufactured in
one working operation from Bakelite. The
“Volksempfänger” (people’s receiver) became famous (the housing consisted of a
fast curing phenolic resin molding compound filled with sawdust). This spread
to the farthest regions of the German
Reich as the speaker tube for government
information and propaganda – and for
entertainment also (Fig. 4). Photography
and filmmaking also became more widespread thanks to this material, slide projectors and film projectors could now be
produced at low cost (Fig. 5).
Of course production had to be adapted to the growing demand. Thus, in 1938
Plant II with railroad connection directly adjoining the railroad station in the
Berliner Straße was brought into operation (Fig. 6).
cosmetics compacts, buttons, including
adornments – especially art deco adornments – made from Bakelite. In homes
and elsewhere light switches, electric
plugs and sockets and many other objects
to do with electricity were made from
Bakelite which was to all intents and purposes regarded as THE plastic, although
many other materials were increasingly
competing with Bakelite.
In the 1930s Bakelite contributed to the
rapid spread of radio sets. Instead of assembling the housings at great expense
Due to events during the war the works
were badly damaged in 1943 and only
very limited production was possible. After the invasion of the Soviet army it was
largely dismantled. Only starting in 1946
did the Kunstharz- und Pressmassenfabrik Erkner (Synthetic Resin and Compression Molding Factory Erkner) go into production again on a modest scale.
On August 23, 1948, VEB Plasta Kunstharz- und Pressmassenfabrik Erkner
(People’s Own Enterprise Plasta Synthetic Resin and Compression Molding Factory Erkner) was founded and by this
means Bakelite GmbH expropriated.
Since then Bakelite has been manufac-
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W 2010 Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich, Germany
!
On the Topic
The Circle of Friends of the
Chemie-Museum Erkner e. V.
(Chemistry Museum)
Dismantling Program and
Expropriation
Fig. 5. Slide projectors and film projectors could
be produced at low cost
In 1993 the works were privatized under
the name of Plasta Erkner. From 2000 to
2002 it belonged to the Swedish Perstorp
Group.After this it was acquired by a conglomerate with headquarters in Helsinki,
Finland. Since then the company has
traded under the name of Dynea Erkner
GmbH supplying a wide Phenoplast
product range comprising approximately 250 types of resin. The West German
sites of Bakelite AG were sold by Rütgers
AG in the summer of 2005 and now belong to Hexion Specialty Chemicals,
Columbus, Ohio, USA, a world leader in
the manufacture of thermoset plastics.
This epoch-making material which has
been displaced to a large extent by many
other less costly and more readily processable plastics is still valued. As a material
In 2003 a circle of friends was formed in
Erkner whose aim is to research the chemistry history of the Berlin and Brandenburg
region, repackage it and make it accessible
to the public in walking tours and lectures
under the aegis of the Erkner Chemistry Forum. The general aim is to promote the
public image of chemistry. The Chairman is
Dr. Gerhard Kossmehl, Professor Emeritus.
The high point to date has been the event
“Bakelite 100 – Plastic from Erkner Conquers the World” conducted jointly with
Dynea Erkner GmbH on November 26 and
27, 2009, with guided tours of the plant,
demonstration of pressing and lectures.
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100 YEARS OF KUNSTSTOFFE
Fig. 6. In order to
meet rising demand in 1938
Plant II with
railroad connection directly
adjoining the railroad station was
started up
having special properties it plays as ever
an important role in technology. It just
does not always appear directly as such in
the way it did before. It forms part of innumerable products in daily life and does
its duty where special and high requirements have to be met: compressed wood
panels and other wood-based materials
such as laminated flooring and decorative laminated composites, chipboard,
hard particle board, plywood, wood-fiber
materials; binding agents for grinding
wheels and brake linings; oil filters, various automobile parts; high-grade insulating material in many electrical appliances, refractory materials; flower-oasis,
insulating and mining foams as well as
special applications, e. g. in the heat
shields of spacecraft [9, 10].
Bakelite as Cult
Objects made from Bakelite and from
Phenoplast have found a large communi-
ty of collectors; the Trabant is now a cult
object. Many owners of apartments dating back to the 1920s and 1930s surfing
on the wave of nostalgia visit junk markets to buy light switches, electric plugs
and sockets and much more made from
Bakelite and install them in the rooms of
their homes. In the meantime such nostalgic items can also be obtained from
specialist dealers. REFERENCES
1 Kraemer, G.; Spilker A.: Ber. Dt. Chem. Ges. 23
(1890), p. 78 and p. 3276
2 Max Weger, Z.: Angewandte Chemie 22 (1909) 8,
pp. 338–347
3 Max Weger, Z. Angewandte Chemie 22 (1909) 9,
pp. 391–395
4 Baeyer, A: Ber. Dt. Chem. Ges. 5 (1972), p. 1094
5 Kleeberg, W.: Liebig‘s Annalen der Chemie 263
(1891), p. 283
6 US Patent 942699: Method for producing condensation products from phenols and formaldehyde
(granted 12.07.1909) Baekeland L. H. – Granted as
German Reich Patent 2333803 on 4.20.1911
7 Collin, G: History of Coal Tar Chemistry with Reference to the Example of the Rütgerswerke. Urbanverlag, Hamburg 2009, p. 75
8 Baekeland L. H.: Chemiker-Zeitung 33 (1909),
pp. 317, 326, 347, 358
9 N.N.: 100 Jahre Phenolharze aus Erkner. Commemorative volume from Dynea Erkner GmbH,
Erkner 2009
10 Koßmehl, G.: Nachrichten aus der Chemie 57
(2009), pp. 1090–1092
THE AUTHOR
PROF. DR. GERHARD KOSSMEHL, born in 1934,
lives in Berlin, Germany and is Professor Emeritus.
Fig. 7. The Trabant bodywork consisted of phenolic resin parts with cotton as support material
surrounding the steel frame
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