Bakelite

[bey-kuh-lahyt, beyk-lahyt]

Trademark.

1. a brand name for any of a series of thermosetting plastics prepared by heating phenol or cresol with formaldehyde and ammonia under pressure: used for radio cabinets, telephone receivers, electric insulators, and molded plastic ware.

Bakelite

/ ˈbeɪkəˌlaɪt /

noun

1. any one of a class of thermosetting resins used as electric insulators and for making plastic ware, telephone receivers, etc

Word History and Origins

Origin of Bakelite¹

C20: named after L. H. Baekeland (1863–1944), Belgian-born US inventor; see _-ite ¹

Example Sentences

During her recent lecture on Bakelite, Bauer brought the candlestick telephone from her apartment and discussed the history of the plastic material.

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"I looked on YouTube for any tutorials on how to get the film out of it," said Sarah, adding the camera's body is made of card and mounted on a Bakelite frame.

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“Trump fraudulently convinced our clients to spend their hard-earned savings to go into business selling the functional equivalent of a Bakelite rotary dial phone, when the future was in smartphones and tablets,” she said.

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Commercial production of Bakelite, the inaugural synthetic plastic, began in both Germany and the United States in 1910.

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She bought a Bakelite camera — “it was like a toy,” she said — with her own money and learned to develop her own film.

Read more on New York Times