Leo Hendrik Baekeland (November 14, 1863 – February 23, 1944)
Baekeland, originally from Belgium but settled in the US, made his name in 1899 when he sold the rights to a new photographic paper to George Eastman of Kodak. The new paper, known as Velux, did not rely on sunlight to develop images, so that photographers could develop by artificial light instead.
In 1907 Baekeland came up with a new material, an artificial replacement for the natural material, shellac, used for insulators which he called Bakelite.
After patenting the material, known to chemists as polyoxybenzylmethylen-glycolanhydride, Baekeland unveiled it to the American Chemical Society in 1909.
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