It will not melt".  
A Culture of Improvement author Robert Friedel credits this product's inventor with making "the very feel of the twentieth century unique".  The inventor of this "artificial amber" was made the President of the American Chemical Society in 1924 and appeared on the cover of Time with the quote, "It will not burn.  It will not melt".  The inventor of this product had earlier made a million dollars selling his patent for Velox, a type of improved photographic paper, to George Eastman.  This product was first marketed for use as an electrical insulator.  It was invented in a home lab in Yonkers by a man who was trying to find a replacement for shellac.  This material was first created by reacting some phenols with (*) formaldehyde.  This "material of a thousand uses" largely replaced a flammable predecessor known as celluloid and helped reduce the cost of telephones and radios.  For 10 points, name this early plastic, invented by Leo Baekeland.
A Culture of Improvement author Robert Friedel credits this product's inventor with making "the very feel of the twentieth century unique".  
bakelite [or poly-oxy-benzyl-methyl-englycol-anhydride; prompt on plastic until mentioned] 