"Heavy as earth" and non-deformable: Bakelite and Duroplast.

In the first half of the 20th century, the term “Bakelite” had become virtually synonymous with plastics, and since the emergence of its thermoplastic successors, the name has been used colloquially to distinguish the old, heavy Duroplasts (melamines, phenolic resins) from what is more or less pejoratively referred to simply as “plastic.” However, contrary to what most people assume based on common usage, Bakelite is not a generic term but a brand name—specifically, that of Bakelite AG in Iserlohn (which, since the local Rütgerwerke sold it to Borden Chemical in 2005, has been under the ownership of various American chemical companies and is now owned by Momentive Specialty Chemicals). That is why we make a strict distinction: We only call a product “Bakelit” if its raw material comes from Iserlohn.

In terms of material history, Bakelit stands at a crossroads: Initially, like its organic predecessors (celluloid, galalith), it was merely a substitute for the raw materials amber and shellac, which were becoming scarce and expensive as mass production began. But then, starting around the 1920s, the material broke free from its early-industrial role as a stopgap solution. Something akin to a distinct “Bakelite aesthetic” emerged, and the images on this page vividly illustrate this. (Some are taken from the exhibition catalog “Bakelite: A Material with a Future” by the Landesmuseum Koblenz and were photographed by Michael Jordan.)

When you encounter these products in person, their aesthetic edge over those made of more modern plastics is unmistakable. Where does this come from? First of all: Unlike thermoplastics, which can be quickly reshaped under heat, in Duroplasts the molecules of the raw materials are permanently and irreversibly restructured: Once a Duroplast has been shaped, it can no longer be altered—it can only be destroyed. The durability of the material’s structure apparently also imbues the outer form and the entire appearance of the object made from it: Objects made of Duroplast appear, as Anna Carola Krausse put it on the occasion of the German Werkbund’s** plastics exhibition, “as heavy as the earth.” Furthermore: Due to the material-specific fillers, Bakelite objects are mostly black, always dark, and never garishly colorful or pastel-hued. Bakelite thus resists, in both color and form, the designers’ flowery and feverish dreams. To bring these visions to life, a more malleable material was needed—the “willing plastic” (A.C. Krausse)—which became available in the 1950s with the advent of thermoplastics; it was “lighter, more supple” and could be produced “foamed, injection-molded, cast, and, above all, in light shades.” Unlike Bakelite, plastic is “the ideal material for boundless creative imagination. Designers ventured into unknown dimensions; the forms became increasingly amorphous and bloated.” Incidentally, Bakelite’s natural tendency to darken does not apply to all Duroplasts; otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to offer the white switch series at all.

Bakelite and its Duroplast relatives still play a significant role—a prominent and ever-growing one in the antiques trade and in the countless online auction houses, and an important, more hidden one in technically demanding applications in the electrical and automotive industries, as well as in aerospace and weapons technology: so it’s certainly not a material of the past. And wherever you encounter it in everyday devices (as a material for housings, handles, switches, etc.), you can be sure that the manufacturer wasn’t out to save a few marks, but was focused on quality.

* Bakelite ® is a registered trademark of Momentive Specialty Chemicals GmbH

** Anna Carola Krausse: Lecture at the exhibition opening “The Plastic Collection Is Never Real” – Werkbund Archive 25