It has been 100 years since Leo Baekeland invented Bakelite, and to celebrate this occasion, the Science Museum of London opened a special exhibition this week. Appropriately titled Plasticity - 100 years of making plastics, this exhibition has several interesting displays to showcase the evolution of plastics over the last century:
- Bakelite coffin from wood-flour filled phenol-formaldehyde resin, 1938
- Mold for a Tupperware(R) container, 1965
- Model airplanes with different shapes, some appear to resemble a bird
- Toyota iUnit concept car, 2005. It uses plant-based materials instead of oil-based plastics and metals. Tough kenaf plant fibres are held together by lignin, a natural polymer found in wood.
- GRP Futuro House, 1968
- PVC dress
I am sure there are many more exhibits, this is what I could gather from the web. I hope they are getting a good crowd!
Baekeland was Belgian by birth, but immigrated to USA after completing his doctorate. Most of his inventions happened here in America. So I wonder why this exhibition did not open in an American city.
Certainly, plastics have changed the way we live so much so that we now take it for granted. Here is a nice timeline of plastics that I found on the National Plastics Center & Museum’s website.
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