Bakelite
Chemical compoundWikipedia
46
MENTIONS
28
EPISODES
24
PODCASTS
Search complete. 46 mentions across 28 episodes found for "Bakelite".
Sep 14, 2026
speaker_0NARRATOR
It was actually a standard phenolic resin mixed with formaldehyde, with soybean fiber as a filler.
speaker_0NARRATOR
Today, engineers believe it behaves much like Bakelite, a popular synthetic plastic at the time.
speaker_0NARRATOR
World War II soon halted domestic car production, and steel was rationed for the military, so the plastic car project was eventually abandoned.
speaker_0NARRATOR
Although the vehicle was not a complete technical success in green engineering, Ford made people realize that using smart, alternative materials could make technology lighter, safer, and less wasteful.
David VealGUEST
Yeah, well, that's what's happening.
David VealGUEST
And the big one is the Bakelite main switches, right? So the old little main switches in there, like our policy is has to be changed.
David VealGUEST
You cannot install it without it.
David VealGUEST
We also look at the, you know, the service fees.
MarcusHOST
I mean, what's wrong with Bakelite? That was 1952.
MarcusHOST
That's right.
David VealGUEST
But, you know, now we're doing different things with our equipment, right? We're now using more electricity.
24 MINS LATER
MarcusHOST
Yeah, that's right.
Dan GingellHOST
So the self-starting screwdriver is a good tip.
Dan GingellHOST
And then remember when you put that little tail on the condenser, onto that screw, onto the points, it's in a little piece of Bakelite or plastic.
Dan GingellHOST
And you don't want to over-tighten that screw because if you pull that screw through that little piece of Bakelite, bingo, there's another ground and you'll crank and crank and crank and the tractor will never get sparked.
Dan GingellHOST
So that little piece of Bakelite is can't be tightened too tight.
Dan GingellHOST
Your points have got to be set correctly.
Dan GingellHOST
And that's kind of an all little challenge to do inside distributors.
Dave BerryHOST
Yeah, I've bought her a landline.
Andrea FoxHOST
The old Bakelite.
Andrea FoxHOST
Yeah,
Dave BerryHOST
she's got the old Bakelite, Andrea.
Dave BerryHOST
It's even got the little thing with the dial.
Dave BerryHOST
It's got the dial.
WilkinHOST
Beyond, a chamber perhaps twenty feet square, lined with thick steel wire caging.
WilkinHOST
Abandoned equipment was stacked in corners, headphones, small audio mixers, a taped deck with peeled Bakelite knobs.
WilkinHOST
I crossed the room, squinting at a battered metal case.
WilkinHOST
The dust on it had been disturbed, a pattern of fingertips and heavier smears.
Tom LinGUEST
Mae wondered aloud what it might sound like to Mara, and briefly, mother and father together imagined what it might be like to hear this sound beyond perception.
Tom LinGUEST
The next day, Saul emptied an entire can of bolt loosener onto the shaft of the volume dial, clamped a vice grip onto the Bakelite, and gave it a thundering blow.
Tom LinGUEST
With a shower of rust and polymer shards, the dial itself disintegrated.
Tom LinGUEST
While May swept up the debris that night and asked what Saul had done, he answered by triumphantly pinching what remained of the volume dial with his fingernails and summoning the Philharmonic into their living room.
Tom JokinenCORRESPONDENT
Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels introduced the Volksempfänger, a radio for the people.
Tom JokinenCORRESPONDENT
Cheap, made out of Bakelite, accessible to working folk.
Tom JokinenCORRESPONDENT
Radios up till then had been only for the rich and the privileged.
Tom JokinenCORRESPONDENT
But Goebbels said, "We want a radio that reaches everyone, a radio that works as an intermediary between the government and the people."
Melanio GomezHOST
And what I love about, uh, you, the product lines that you choose is that there's a familiarity to them.
Melanio GomezHOST
There's sort of a retro, whether it's a Bakelite fin- or whether it's a plastic that i- that looks older than new pla- it, there's something really familiar about the things.
Melanio GomezHOST
It reminds you of something that you've seen if you went to an old office or-
Allison WilliamsGUEST
Mm-hmm
18 more episodes mention Bakelite.
Create an account to see the whole feed, search across every transcript, and follow the entities you care about.