Phenolic resin: It was first synthesized in 1872 by German chemist Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer (1835-1917). In 1907, Leo Hendrik Baekeland (1863-1944), an American chemist born in Belgium, improved the production technology of phenolic resin and made the resin practical and industrialized. In 1910, he established General Bakelite and gave the phenolic resin the trade name "Bakelite" after his own name.