Baekeland was hardly alone in his quest for a better varnish. The shellac issue was one of the hot topics of chemical research at the turn of the century. The sole source of shellac was the excretions ...

Groot is an avid collector of Bakelite plastic products, with some 4,000 items in his collection. Karraker is the great-grandson of the inventor of Bakelite, Leo Hendrik Baekeland. They met at a ...