If you are ever in need of a famous Belgian - it can happen - then there are a few handy places for you to look. Not just the usual Wikipedia search.
While you are there you'll discover that apart from the ones you might be familiar with:
Eddy Merckx - come on, you are familiar with the famous cyclist aren't you?
Plastic Bertrand
Herge
Audrey Hepburn
etc
You will also find this chap on the list:
Leo Hendrik Baekeland
He was the inventor of Bakelite, the first synthetic plastic. Baekeland was spurred on to find a substitute for shellac as an electrical insulator. Shellac, a resin secreted by the female Kerria lacca beetle, was time consuming to collect and it was in short supply given the increased demands of the early 1900s.
Bakelite control knob
Bakelite was used to make a wide variety of products throughout the first half of the 20th Century. A decline in usage came about due to discoveries of other less brittle and more easily manageable polymers although there are still products made using Bakelite.
Bakelite box containing an "Ever - Ready" razor, Made in England
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