tailieunhanh - IELTS Academic Reading Sample 72 - Bakelite The birth of modern plastics

Với mong muốn giúp các bạn đạt kết quả cao trong kì thi, đã sưu tầm và chọn lọc gửi đến các bạn IELTS Academic Reading Sample 72 - Bakelite The birth of modern plastics. Mời các bạn cùng tham khảo! | BAKELITE The birth of modern plastics In 1907 Leo Hendrick Baekeland a Belgian scientist working in New York discovered and patented a revolutionary new synthetic material. His invention which he named Bakelite was of enormous technological importance and effectively launched the modern plastics industry. The term plastic comes from the Greek plassein meaning to mould . Some plastics are derived from natural sources some are semi-synthetic the result of chemical action on a natural substance and some are entirely synthetic that is chemically engineered from the constituents of coal or oil. Some are thermoplastic which means that like candlewax they melt when heated and can then be reshaped. Others are thermosetting like eggs they cannot revert to their original viscous state and their shape is thus fixed for ever. Bakelite had the distinction of being the first totally synthetic thermosetting plastic. The history of today s plastics begins with the discovery of a series of semi-synthetic thermoplastic materials in the mid-nineteenth century. The impetus behind the development of these early plastics was generated by a number of factors - immense technological progress in the domain of chemistry coupled with wider cultural changes and the pragmatic need to find acceptable substitutes for dwindling supplies of luxury materials such as tortoiseshell and ivory. Baekeland s interest in plastics began in 1885 when as a young chemistry student in Belgium he embarked on research into phenolic resins the group of sticky substances produced when phenol carbolic acid combines with an aldehyde a volatile fluid similar to alcohol . He soon abandoned the subject however only returning to it some years later. By 1905 he was a wealthy New Yorker having recently made his fortune with the invention of a new photographic paper. While Baekeland had been busily amassing dollars some advances had been made in the development of plastics. The years 1899 and 1900 had 6 seen the patenting

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