“He reached the top and was told to stop for a while!
He looked back contended and said with a smile!
This mountain was the tallest one and so high!
But my dear, my limit is not this hill but the sky!”
There are some who have already done great stuff or invented an amazing thing or even won the Nobel prize! Surprisingly just when you thought that they would take the win and get on, they try to get another Nobel! Or at least work for it!
Read about one who got Gold and still persisted to discover diamond!
Leo Hendrik Baekeland was a young lad at the time who received his doctorate maxima cum laude from the University of Ghent at the age of 21 and taught there until 1889, when he went to the U.S. and joined a photographic firm.
Then he invented Velox! This was a photographic paper that could be developed under artificial light! Velox was the first commercially successful photographic paper.
It was a slow, silver chloride paper which could be handled before exposure even under weak electric light or yellow gaslight. In a photographic darkroom it could be handled under a bright yellow safelight! This was gold for the photography industry and how! Later in 1899 Baekeland sold his company and rights to the paper to the U.S. inventor George Eastman for $1,000,000!
So now you will think he took the money and enjoyed! He of course did but then he went on to invent another material which has changed the course of tech and created a whole industry!
During that time, chemists had begun to recognize that many natural resins and fibers were polymers!
So Baekeland’s initial intent was to find a replacement for shellac, a material in limited supply because it was made naturally from the secretion of lac insects.
HIs first attempt was a soluble phenol-formaldehyde shellac called Novolak, but it was not a market success, even though it is still used to this day!
He then began experimenting on strengthening wood by impregnating it with a synthetic resin rather than coating it!
By controlling the pressure and temperature applied to phenol and formaldehyde, he produced a hard moldable material that he named Bakelite deservedly after himself!
It was the first synthetic thermosetting plastic produced, and Baekeland speculated on “the thousand and one … articles” it could be used to make!
Bakelite is manufactured in several forms to suit varying requirements. In all these forms the fundamental basis is the initial Bakelite resin!
Bakelite has a number of important properties. It can be molded very quickly, decreasing production time. Moldings are smooth, retain their shape, and are resistant to heat, scratches, and destructive solvents. It is also resistant to electricity, and prized for its low conductivity. So basically if you think of a thermosetting plastic then the first one is the Bakelite which is a dependable and strong material! Dependable also is the sobriquet of birthday celebrity Sanjay Suri!
Now set the temperature to a comfortable setting and sleep!
Shubh ratri!
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