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67-638: The R1155 and T1154 sets were manufactured by several British radio manufacturers, including EKCO , Marconi , Plessey , and EMI . Ekco, who manufactured the R1155 and T1154 at its Aylesbury shadow factory , carried out extensive development work on both units before putting them into production, significantly improving on the original Marconi design. Large numbers of war surplus R1155 radios were modified for private use postwar. & 1500 kHz to 500 kHz & 500 kHz to 75 kHz & 500 kHz to 200 kHz This World War II article

134-412: A "Materia Nova", "expressive of our own age". By the 1930s, Bakelite was used for game pieces like chess pieces , poker chips , dominoes , and mahjong sets. Kitchenware made with Bakelite, including canisters and tableware, was promoted for its resistance to heat and to chipping. In the mid-1930s, Northland marketed a line of skis with a black "Ebonite" base, a coating of Bakelite. By 1935, it

201-460: A great commercial success. It was used in electrical insulators , radio and telephone casings, and such diverse products as kitchenware, jewelry, pipe stems, children's toys, and firearms. The retro appeal of old Bakelite products has made them collectible. The creation of a synthetic plastic was revolutionary for the chemical industry, which at the time made most of its income from cloth dyes and explosives. Bakelite's commercial success inspired

268-662: A large archive of documents and ephemera. The Science Museum, London holds a collection of EKCO Electronics, Ekco Heating and Appliances, and Ekco Plastics, while the Museum of Design in Plastic has a collection of Ekco products. The Victoria and Albert Museum have 71 items from Ekco in their collection. [REDACTED] Media related to EKCO at Wikimedia Commons Bakelite Bakelite ( / ˈ b eɪ k ə l aɪ t / BAY -kə-lyte ), formally poly­oxy­benzyl­methylene­glycol­anhydride ,

335-489: A local newspaper asking if it was possible to power a radio set from the mains electricity supply rather than batteries. Cole saw a possible business opportunity and set about building his battery eliminator, the H.T. Eliminator, which he later demonstrated to Verrells. Suitably impressed, Verrells joined Cole in a business venture, with Cole manufacturing the battery eliminators, and Verrells marketing them with both Cole, Verrells and Bradshaw selling sets by knocking on doors in

402-514: A manufacturer of domestic wares. The company merged in 1960 with Pye to become British Electronic Industries Ltd, which was purchased by Dutch firm Philips in 1967, with the EKCO brand disappearing from brown goods during the 1970s. The company's founder Eric Kirkham Cole was born in July 1901 at Prittlewell , Southend-on-Sea , Essex, and was educated at Southend Day Technical School , followed by

469-732: A material for electrical insulators. In the summer of 1909, he licensed the continental European rights to Rütger AG. The subsidiary formed at that time, Bakelite AG, was the first to produce Bakelite on an industrial scale. By 1910, Baekeland was producing enough material in the US to justify expansion. He formed the General Bakelite Company of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, as a U.S. company to manufacture and market his new industrial material, and made overseas connections to produce it in other countries. The Bakelite Company produced "transparent" cast resin (which did not include filler ) for

536-642: A merger of three British phenol formaldehyde resin suppliers (Damard Lacquer Company Limited of Birmingham , Mouldensite Limited of Darley Dale and Redmanol Chemical Products Company of London ), was formed in 1926. A new Bakelite factory opened in Tyseley , Birmingham, around 1928. It was the "heart of Bakelite production in the UK" until it closed in 1987. A factory to produce phenolic resins and precursors opened in Bound Brook, New Jersey , in 1931. In 1939,

603-573: A merger of three companies: Baekeland's General Bakelite Company; the Condensite Company, founded by J. W. Aylesworth; and the Redmanol Chemical Products Company , founded by Lawrence V. Redman . Under director of advertising and public relations Allan Brown, who came to Bakelite from Condensite, Bakelite was aggressively marketed as "the material of a thousand uses". A filing for a trademark featuring

670-536: A new holding company, British Electronic Industries Ltd, with C.O. Stanley as chairman and E. K. Cole as vice-chairman. The following year Cole resigned from the board and retired. He died on 18 November 1966 in the Bahamas due to a bathing accident, his wife Muriel having predeceased him in 1965. In 1961, Ekco formed two companies, Ekco TV and Radio and Ekco Heating and Electrical to market their products. British Electronic Industries became Pye of Cambridge in 1963,

737-414: A similar material fakelite (fake bakelite) exists made from modern safer materials which do not contain asbestos . The United States Patent and Trademark Office granted Baekeland a patent for a "Method of making insoluble products of phenol and formaldehyde" on December 7, 1909. Producing hard, compact, insoluble, and infusible condensation products of phenols and formaldehyde marked the beginning of

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804-423: A small market during the 1910s and 1920s. Blocks or rods of cast resin, also known as "artificial amber", were machined and carved to create items such as pipe stems , cigarette holders , and jewelry . However, the demand for molded plastics led the company to concentrate on molding rather than cast solid resins. The Bakelite Corporation was formed in 1922 after patent litigation favorable to Baekeland, from

871-485: A three-year apprenticeship. He joined his father's business in fitting electrics to houses. Cole and his future wife Muriel Bradshaw started out making radio sets in 1922 in a rented room in Westcliff-on-Sea, at a rate of about six a week, which were all battery powered as per the norm at the time. William Streatfield Verrells, a schoolmaster and freelance journalist from Southend-on-Sea, wrote an article in

938-608: A varnish, and a protective coating, as well as for the emerging electrical and automobile industries because of its extraordinarily high resistance to electricity, heat, and chemical action. The earliest commercial use of Bakelite in the electrical industry was the molding of tiny insulating bushings, made in 1908 for the Weston Electrical Instrument Corporation by Richard W. Seabury of the Boonton Rubber Company. Bakelite

1005-608: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . EKCO EKCO (abbreviated from Eric Kirkham Cole Limited ) was a British electronics company founded by Eric Kirkham Cole CBE in Southend-on-Sea during 1924. The company started out by making radio sets, before progressing onto television sets and lighting. The company's knowledge of radio saw it expand into developing radar before and during World War II. The company expanded into making its own plastic bodies for radio sets, with EKCO Plastics later becoming

1072-591: Is a thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin , formed from a condensation reaction of phenol with formaldehyde . The first plastic made from synthetic components, it was developed by Leo Baekeland in Yonkers, New York , in 1907, and patented on December 7, 1909. Bakelite was one of the first plastic-like materials to be introduced into the modern world and was popular because it could be moulded and then hardened into any shape. Because of its electrical nonconductivity and heat-resistant properties, it became

1139-403: Is also resistant to electricity, and prized for its low conductivity. It is not flexible. Phenolic resin products may swell slightly under conditions of extreme humidity or perpetual dampness. When rubbed or burnt, Bakelite has a distinctive, acrid, sickly-sweet or fishy odor. The characteristics of Bakelite made it particularly suitable as a molding compound, an adhesive or binding agent,

1206-409: Is also used in the mounting of metal samples in metallography . Bakelite items, particularly jewelry and radios, have become popular collectibles. The term Bakelite is sometimes used in the resale market as a catch-all for various types of early plastics, including Catalin and Faturan , which may be brightly colored, as well as items made of true Bakelite material. Due to its aesthetics,

1273-597: Is manufactured in several forms to suit varying requirements. In all these forms the fundamental basis is the initial Bakelite resin. This variety includes clear material, for jewelry, smokers' articles, etc.; cement, for sealing electric light bulbs in metal bases; varnishes, for impregnating electric coils, etc.; lacquers, for protecting the surface of hardware; enamels, for giving resistive coating to industrial equipment; Laminated Bakelite, used for silent gears and insulation; and molding material, from which are formed innumerable articles of utility and beauty. The molding material

1340-509: Is prepared ordinarily by the impregnation of cellulose substances with the initial "uncured" resin. In a 1925 report, the United States Tariff Commission hailed the commercial manufacture of synthetic phenolic resin as "distinctly an American achievement", and noted that "the publication of figures, however, would be a virtual disclosure of the production of an individual company". In England, Bakelite Limited,

1407-402: Is still manufactured and produced in sheet, rod, and tube form for industrial applications in the electronics, power generation, and aerospace industries, and under a variety of commercial brand names. Phenolic resins have been commonly used in ablative heat shields. Soviet heatshields for ICBM warheads and spacecraft reentry consisted of asbestos textolite, impregnated with Bakelite. Bakelite

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1474-570: The Catalin company, through a different process which enabled them to introduce 15 new colors. Translucent jewelry, poker chips and other items made of phenolic resins were introduced in the 1930s or 1940s by the Catalin company under the Prystal name. The creation of marbled phenolic resins may also be attributable to the Catalin company. Making Bakelite is a multi-stage process. It begins with

1541-551: The Concorde and BOAC Boeing 747 fleet. The Rochford factory was sold to Lesney Products in 1968, with a works being transferred back to the Ekco Works at Southend. In 1970, EKCO's radar activities were subsumed into MEL , the military electronics subsidiary of Philips. The company began to use injection moulding to make plastic radio cases in 1947, and expanded into making plastic parts for other manufacturers. By

1608-894: The 1950s, the company produced a number of military radar systems including the ARI 5820 ranging radar for the Hawker Hunter ; the ASV Mk. 19 air to surface vessel radar for the Fairey Gannet , and the Red Steer tail warning radar for the Avro Vulcan . EKCO also supplied weather radars for a variety of civil aircraft such as the Bristol Britannia , De Havilland Comet , Vickers Vanguard , Vickers VC10 and BAC 111 . The instrumentation department produced some of

1675-587: The Army and black buttons for the RAF . In 1947, Dutch art forger Han van Meegeren was convicted of forgery, after chemist and curator Paul B. Coremans proved that a purported Vermeer contained Bakelite, which van Meegeren had used as a paint hardener. Bakelite was sometimes used in the pistol grip, hand guard, and buttstock of firearms. The AKM and some early AK-74 rifles are frequently mistakenly identified as using Bakelite, but most were made with AG-4S . By

1742-656: The British Army. Ekco bought the Dynatron business in 1954 and the Ferranti brown goods brand in 1957 (though not Ferranti's heavy industries, defence electronics or meter businesses). The company also had a component subsidiary, Egen Electrics, on Canvey Island . In the early 1950s, a new subsidiary Ekco Electronics Ltd, was created to manage the development of radar and instrumentation manufactured at both Malmesbury (radar) and Southend (instrumentation). During

1809-562: The Duke of Edinburgh award for elegant design with the judges commenting on its "practical qualities of convenience and durability with shapes and colours of precision and elegance". In 1970, Harman Powell's design for disposable cutlery won the Design Council of Industrial Design Award for Consumer Orientated Products. Pye Holdings sold Ecko Plastics to National Plastics, a subsidiary of Courtaulds , in 1978 for £875,000. NP Ekco, as

1876-481: The Southend School of Art and had previously worked for EKCO, was appointed as chief industrial designer in 1960 after a spell with British Industrial Plastics. The company were producing over a million plastic mouldings a week by 1960. In 1964, under Pye of Cambridge ownership, Ekco Plastics introduced a range of containers under the 'Eckoware' brand name. In 1968, David Harman Powell's Nova tableware won

1943-661: The area of inexpensive board and tabletop games produced in China, Hong Kong, and India. Items such as billiard balls, dominoes and pieces for board games such as chess, checkers, and backgammon are constructed of Bakelite for its look, durability, fine polish, weight, and sound. Common dice are sometimes made of Bakelite for weight and sound, but the majority are made of a thermoplastic polymer such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). Bakelite continues to be used for wire insulation, brake pads and related automotive components, and industrial electrical-related applications. Bakelite stock

2010-477: The best, if not the best, units in the country producing wireless apparatus". It is estimated that by 1945 EKCO had over 8,000 people working for it across various sites making mains and portable TVs, mains and portable radios, radiograms, tape recorders, car radios , electric heaters , and electric blankets . In 1947, the company introduced the Wireless Set No. 88 VHF man-pack transceiver for use by

2077-533: The business to Marconi. Before the start of the Second World War, the Government decided to disperse certain production to locations away from obvious bombing targets. This led to a shadow factory at Cowbridge House , Malmesbury , Wiltshire, being established by Ekco. This was followed by other shadow factories at Aylesbury , Woking , Preston , and Rutherglen . The wartime headquarters of Ekco

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2144-435: The clubs football team Ekco Park F.C. still carry the name. A statue of Eric Cole was commissioned for the housing development in 2020. The EKCO brand was bought by Chinese company International Audio Group in 2009. Southend Museums Service is home to the world's largest collection of Ekco material including radios, television sets, electric heaters and blankets, bathroom accessories, domestic design, kitchenware, and

2211-894: The companies were acquired by Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation . In 2005, German Bakelite manufacturer Bakelite AG was acquired by Borden Chemical of Columbus, Ohio, now Hexion Inc. In addition to the original Bakelite material, these companies eventually made a wide range of other products, many of which were marketed under the brand name "Bakelite plastics". These included other types of cast phenolic resins similar to Catalin , and urea-formaldehyde resins, which could be made in brighter colors than poly­oxy­benzyl­methylene­glycol­anhydride. Once Baekeland's heat and pressure patents expired in 1927, Bakelite Corporation faced serious competition from other companies. Because molded Bakelite incorporated fillers to give it strength, it tended to be made in concealing dark colors. In 1927, beads, bangles, and earrings were produced by

2278-722: The company had a turnover of more than £1 million. In 1935 Ekco made a substantial investment in Scophony Limited, the developers of the Scophony projection television system. Although the system showed great promise, its development was halted by the Second World War, and not resumed postwar. In 1936, Ekco and Marconi set up Marconi-Ekco Instruments as a jointly owned company to combine their activities in measuring instruments, diathermy, and electro-medical apparatus with premises at Southend and Chelmsford. In 1941, Eric Kirkham Cole announced that they had sold their share in

2345-656: The design work for the company’s new range of receivers. Ekco launched its first car radio at the 1934 Radiolympia exhibition. Another important development for the company was the introduction of bakelite cabinets for its radios. Initially these cabinets were made for the company in Germany by AEG , however the introduction of high import duties on the cabinets in 1931 led Ekco to establish its own bakelite moulding shop adjacent to its Southend-on-Sea works. The company employed architects such as Serge Chermayeff and Wells Coates to design its bakelite radio cabinets. By 1934,

2412-573: The first control systems for Britain's nuclear power stations, while other instruments included nucleonic gauges. In 1960, a new factory was opened in Rochford , with the manufacture and development departments at Southend and Malmesbury being relocated to the new site. Westland Sea King helicopters used the Ekco AW391 search radar, while the company also made the E390/564 weather radar for

2479-514: The first half of the 20th century. Beginning in the 1920s, it became a popular material for jewelry. Designer Coco Chanel included Bakelite bracelets in her costume jewelry collections. Designers such as Elsa Schiaparelli used it for jewelry and also for specially designed dress buttons. Later, Diana Vreeland , editor of Vogue , was enthusiastic about Bakelite. Bakelite was also used to make presentation boxes for Breitling watches. By 1930, designer Paul T. Frankl considered Bakelite

2546-548: The first time. Ekco Plastics was based at Priory Crescent, Southend. They developed a range of plastic consumer products, beginning with the 'Superbath' baby bath, designed by Martyn Rowland who would later design the Trimphone . The bath won a Council of Industrial Design award in 1958. The company provided 800 slimline toilet seats for the cruise ship SS Oriana in 1959, with many hotels and public organisations ordering there products. David Harman Powell, who had attended

2613-433: The foaming that would otherwise occur. The resulting substance is extremely hard and both infusible and insoluble. Molded Bakelite forms in a condensation reaction of phenol and formaldehyde, with wood flour or asbestos fiber as a filler, under high pressure and heat in a time frame of a few minutes of curing . The result is a hard plastic material. Asbestos was gradually abandoned as filler because many countries banned

2680-580: The group, and in 1976 completed the purchase of the remaining shares. By the early 1970s, the Ekco brand had all but disappeared from electronic products. The main factory at Southend-on-Sea was, after being sold to the Access credit card company, demolished to make way for a housing development. The Ekco name lives on within the development, and the site still hosts the Ekco Social and Sports Club, while

2747-418: The heating of phenol and formaldehyde in the presence of a catalyst such as hydrochloric acid, zinc chloride , or the base ammonia. This creates a liquid condensation product, referred to as Bakelite A , which is soluble in alcohol, acetone, or additional phenol. Heated further, the product becomes partially soluble and can still be softened by heat. Sustained heating results in an "insoluble hard gum". However,

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2814-399: The high temperatures required to create this tend to cause violent foaming of the mixture when done at standard atmospheric pressure, which results in the cooled material being porous and breakable. Baekeland's innovative step was to put his "last condensation product" into an egg-shaped "Bakelizer". By heating it under pressure, at about 150 °C (302 °F), Baekeland was able to suppress

2881-541: The industry to develop other synthetic plastics. As the world's first commercial synthetic plastic , Bakelite was named a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society . Bakelite was produced for the first time in 1872 by Adolf von Baeyer , though its use as a commercial product was not considered at the time. Leo Baekeland was already wealthy due to his invention of Velox photographic paper when he began to investigate

2948-492: The late 1940s, newer materials were superseding Bakelite in many areas. Phenolics are less frequently used in general consumer products today due to their cost and complexity of production and their brittle nature. They still appear in some applications where their specific properties are required, such as small precision-shaped components, molded disc brake cylinders, saucepan handles, electrical plugs, switches and parts for electrical irons, printed circuit boards , as well as in

3015-463: The layers into thermosetting industrial laminated plastic. Bakelite phenolic sheet is produced in many commercial grades and with various additives to meet diverse mechanical, electrical, and thermal requirements. Some common types include: 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

3082-565: The letter B above the mathematical symbol for infinity was made August 25, 1925, and claimed the mark was in use as of December 1, 1924. A wide variety of uses were listed in their trademark applications. The first issue of Plastics magazine, October 1925, featured Bakelite on its cover and included the article "Bakelite – What It Is" by Allan Brown. The range of colors that were available included "black, brown, red, yellow, green, gray, blue, and blends of two or more of these". The article emphasized that Bakelite came in various forms. Bakelite

3149-539: The manufacture of mains powered radios rather than battery eliminators which were becoming obsolete, bringing in John Wyborn from Marconiphone as their chief engineer and Michael Lipman as production engineer. The company was also revolutionary in using Bakelite for its radio cases instead of wood, which was the norm. The company suffered a major financial setback in 1932, when a fire swept through its research and development laboratories. The blaze destroyed much of

3216-539: The mid to late 1950s, E. K. Cole had grown to be one of the largest producers of industrial plastics in Europe, purchasing companies such as Kilgore in 1955. Ekco Plastics Limited was formed in 1956 as a wholly owned subsidiary. In 1959, the largest plastic injection moulding machine in Great Britain was installed in the factory. The new moulding machine allowed Ekco to produce single mouldings for Frigidaire for

3283-602: The new radar systems as part of the "Western Development Unit". Radar equipment produced at Malmesbury during the war included the AI Mk. IV and AI Mk. VIII air interception radars, and the ASV Mk. II air to surface vessel radar. In addition to radar equipment, Ekco also manufactured the ubiquitous R1155 and T1154 aircraft radios at its Aylesbury shadow factory. Ekco carried out extensive development work on both units before putting them into production, significantly improving on

3350-538: The original Marconi design. The R1155 and T1154 were also produced by Marconi, Plessey , and EMI . The company also manufactured the Wireless Set No. 19 tank radio at Woking. It was a Pye designed set made by several other British and American companies. In 1942, Ekco began production of its Wireless Set No. 46 portable man-pack radio, and large numbers of these were made at the company's Woking and Southend-on-Sea factories. In 1943, Sir Stafford Cripps , then minister of aircraft production, described Ekco as "one of

3417-412: The possibilities of using a wide variety of filling materials, including cotton, powdered bronze, and slate dust, but was most successful with wood and asbestos fibers, though asbestos was gradually abandoned by all manufacturers due to stricter environmental laws. Baekeland filed a substantial number of related patents. Bakelite, his "method of making insoluble products of phenol and formaldehyde",

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3484-429: The production of asbestos. Bakelite's molding process had a number of advantages. Bakelite resin could be provided either as powder or as preformed partially cured slugs, increasing the speed of the casting. Thermosetting resins such as Bakelite required heat and pressure during the molding cycle but could be removed from the molding process without being cooled, again making the molding process faster. Also, because of

3551-424: The reactions of phenol and formaldehyde in his home laboratory. Chemists had begun to recognize that many natural resins and fibers were polymers . 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 (specifically Kerria lacca ). He produced a soluble phenol-formaldehyde shellac called Novolak , but it

3618-575: The smooth polished surface that resulted, Bakelite objects required less finishing. Millions of parts could be duplicated quickly and relatively cheaply. Another market for Bakelite resin was the creation of phenolic sheet materials. A phenolic sheet is a hard, dense material made by applying heat and pressure to layers of paper or glass cloth impregnated with synthetic resin. Paper, cotton fabrics, synthetic fabrics, glass fabrics, and unwoven fabrics are all possible materials used in lamination. When heat and pressure are applied, polymerization transforms

3685-499: The subsidiary was called, was sold to Linpac in 1986. Linpac became Ecomold, but closed the factory after it fell into administration in 2008. Ekco started making Thermotube tubular heaters at Malmesbury in 1940. The company would develop further products including electric blankets, Panelec solid embedded floor warming system, Greenhouse heating, Teamakers and Hostess trolleys. In 1962, Ekco merged with Pye subsidiary L G Hawkins & Co Ltd to form Ekco Hawkins. The production

3752-403: The town that had a radio aerial outside their property. Cole married Muriel in 1925 and they would go onto have two boys. In 1926 a private company E. K. Cole Ltd was formed with Verrells as chairman and Cole as vice-chairman, and were joined on the board by local businessmen Mr Maxwell, the owner of Peter Pans Playground , builder Mr Manners and milkman Mr Pring. With the extra funding that

3819-468: Was also very important to the developing automobile industry. It was soon found in myriad other consumer products ranging from pipe stems and buttons to saxophone mouthpieces, cameras, early machine guns, and appliance casings. Bakelite was also very commonly used in making molded grip panels on handguns, as furniture for submachine guns and machineguns, the classic Bakelite magazines for Kalashnikov rifles, as well as numerous knife handles and "scales" through

3886-610: Was based at Aston Clinton House in Buckinghamshire. Following the outbreak of war, the Southend-on-Sea factory was evacuated apart from the bakelite moulding shop whose large moulding presses could not be moved easily. Less than a year later, the empty factory was re-equipped to make wiring looms for aircraft such as the Avro Lancaster . Malmesbury specialised in the top-secret development and production of

3953-401: Was filed on July 13, 1907, and granted on December 7, 1909. He also filed for patent protection in other countries, including Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, Russia, and Spain. He announced his invention at a meeting of the American Chemical Society on February 5, 1909. Baekeland started semi-commercial production of his new material in his home laboratory, marketing it as

4020-688: Was moved to Hawkins factory in Hastings , with the company later being renamed Ekco Hastings. The company later became part of Philips small electrical appliance department. In the late 1930s, Ekco began producing its own radio valves at its Southend-on-Sea works. Following the company's decision to abandon the venture, the plant was converted to a lamp factory. In 1943, Ekco acquired Ensign Lamps based in Preston. In 1950, Ekco sold 51% of its lighting subsidiary, Ekco-Ensign Electric Ltd, to Thorn Electrical Industries . Ekco merged with Pye in 1960 to form

4087-546: Was not a market success, even though it is still used to this day (e.g., as a photoresist ). 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, 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. He considered

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4154-443: Was put up for sale in 1966, and in the same year Pye closed the Southend-on-Sea factory (but maintained its car radio repair workshop until 1977) as part of its restructuring plan. Philips Electrical Industries attempted to purchase the business but was blocked from buying the company outright by the then Trade Secretary Tony Benn , and would only allow them to purchase 60% of the shareholding. Philips created Pye Holdings to manage

4221-494: Was raised, the company set up a new factory behind 803-805 London Road, Leigh-on-Sea in 1927, employing around 50 people. After further expansion, E. K. Cole Ltd became a public limited company in 1930, and moved to a spacious new factory called the Ekco Works at Priory Crescent, Southend-on-Sea, the first large factory in Britain intended specifically for manufacturing radio receivers. The company also began to concentrate on

4288-421: Was soon used for non-conducting parts of telephones, radios, and other electrical devices, including bases and sockets for light bulbs and electron tubes (vacuum tubes), supports for any type of electrical components, automobile distributor caps, and other insulators. By 1912, it was being used to make billiard balls, since its elasticity and the sound it made were similar to ivory. During World War I, Bakelite

4355-403: Was used in solid-body electric guitars . Performers such as Jerry Byrd loved the tone of Bakelite guitars but found them difficult to keep in tune. Charles Plimpton patented BAYKO in 1933 and rushed out his first construction sets for Christmas 1934. He called the toy Bayko Light Constructional Sets , the words "Bayko Light" being a pun on the word "Bakelite". During World War II, Bakelite

4422-577: Was used in a variety of wartime equipment including pilots' goggles and field telephones. It was also used for patriotic wartime jewelry. In 1943, the thermosetting phenolic resin was even considered for the manufacture of coins, due to a shortage of traditional material. Bakelite and other non-metal materials were tested for usage for the one cent coin in the US before the Mint settled on zinc-coated steel . During World War II, Bakelite buttons were part of British uniforms. These included brown buttons for

4489-596: Was used widely, particularly in electrical systems. Important projects included the Liberty airplane engine , the wireless telephone and radio phone, and the use of micarta-bakelite propellers in the NBS-1 bomber and the DH-4B aeroplane . Bakelite's availability and ease and speed of molding helped to lower the costs and increase product availability so that telephones and radios became common household consumer goods. It

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