On Thursday, August 14, 2003, at 12:43 PM, [log in to unmask] wrote:

> Here are a few dates that may be of interest.  Don't ask - no hard
> references, just culled from years of reading.
>
> Bakelite:  invented by Leo Hendrick Baekeland in 1906.  Pat. in either
> 1908
> or 1909, and available in colors a few years later.

That stuff gets confusing, at least to me. The molded button material
Gutta Percha has also been called bakelite, if erroneously. GP goes
back into the middle 19th century. Is there any relatively easy means
of distinguishing them? I've seen Gutta Percha buttons in black only
while the bakelite electric fixtures I've seen have all been brown. Is
it as simple as that?

Lyle Browning