Bakelite is a thermosetting plastic which shows high resistance to heat, electricity and chemical agents. It can be easily moulded into any shape and dyed into any colour. It is widely used to make insulating bushes, sockets for electric bulbs and other non-conducting parts of electrical appliances because of the electrical insulation it provides.
It is used to make scores of products like clocks, radios, telephones, kitchenware, tableware, jewellery boxes, pipes, buttons, cameras, lamps, chess sets, billiard balls, and jewellery. Moreover, it is cheap and affordable. No wonder, it is called a material of thousand uses.
Bakelite changed the trends in fashion too. Bakelite jewellery was highly sought-after in the 1920s as it offered an affordable and attractive replacement for other materials. It also played a role in World War I and II as it was used to make a lot of war materials.
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