Quotes from Leo Baekeland


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I was trying to make something really hard, but then I thought I should make something really soft instead, that could be molded into different shapes. That was how I came up with the first plastic. I called it Bakelite.


Well, it was kind of an accident, because plastic is not what I meant to invent. I had just sold photograph paper to Eastman Kodak for 1 million dollars.


In 1893 I founded a chemical company which I ran until 1899.


I also served on many government committees.


Then I was president of the Bakelite Corporation from 1910 to 1930.