Bakelite is a hard, early plastic, often dark brown, black, or a mottled cream, with a slightly warm, solid feel. In the 1930s and 1940s it was everywhere: telephone bodies, radio cases, jewellery, kitchenware, light switches. Once it is set, it stays set — it does not melt and remould the way many later plastics do — which made it strong, and also brittle if you drop it. You will meet the word in museums, antique shops, and when people talk about old phones. Though actually it is a brand that became a material name, from Leo Baekeland, the Belgian chemist who made it, plus the English ending -ite that we like for materials. Later plastics took over, so new things are almost never Bakelite, but the old pieces are still around, and collectors look for them. People sometimes use the name loosely for any old dark plastic of that look; strictly, only this early kind is Bakelite.