7 Bakelite: Transatlantic Patenting

In summer 1905, part of which Baekeland spent away from his family, his wife sent him an emotional letter that casts further light on his motives as an entrepreneur, as well as on his weaknesses as a father and husband. By this time, Baekeland had become closely involved in the scale-up of Townsend and Sperry's electrolytic process, among other consulting assignments, while also conducting various independent experiments in his personal laboratory in Yonkers. In addition, as we have seen, he had started to play a prominent role in several professional chemical and chemical engineering societies. Still, none of these pursuits—let alone his responsibilities as the father of a ten-year-old son and a nine-year-old daughter—could prevent him from feeling that he had lost his “ambition in life.” According to Céline Swarts's letter, Baekeland was blaming her for his reduced appetite for work, presumably because of her efforts to have him spend more time with his family. Swarts, in contrast, pointed out that he had “taken back [his] freedom and [his] independence long ago” and instead associated her husband's complaints with his difficulties adjusting to a rich man's life. “Your lack of ambition is the result of a material point reached, and I am astonished that your moral or fame ambition does not satisfy you. But I am not the cause of it,” she argued. At the same time, she encouraged him not to “allow your disappointment in me to hurt your life; have your ambition, your career, and above all your self respect, for yourself, for your children.” Moreover, in a sarcastic comment that revealed that she had not yet found peace with their less than perfect marriage, she added that, “I shall never again bother you with my love or my affection.”
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