The average cost to house an inmate in Texas prisons is $47.50 per day, according to Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Thus it would cost about $17,340 to house an inmate for a year and $693,500 for 40 years, far less than even part of the death penalty costs.
Like many modern plastics, Bakelite was lightweight and durable, and it could be molded into nearly infinite shapes, so its use quickly expanded as manufacturers realized its potential. Consumers primarily were attracted to its aesthetic qualities: a sleek, stylish look coupled with a substantial, high-end feel.
Bakelite-a hard, dark plastic-was discovered by Leo Baekeland, a Belgian-born chemist in 1907 and was the first truly synthetic plastic to be patented. Made from carboxylic acid and formaldehyde, Bakelite resin was normally reinforced with fillers (either fibers or woodflour).