Shellac is a natural substance from the lac beetle.  Bakelite is made
from phenol and formaldehyde.  Not the same at all!

But... 78-rpm records aren't pure shellac, having lots of slate dust
in them to give body and strength.  I don't know where I got it from,
I'm sure I heard somewhere that the combination of Bakelite as a
plasticiser plus old 78 record dust as filler was called Crystalate
(and probably other trade names), and was widely used to make something
tougher than pure Bakelite.

Pretty well everybody used it to make roll ends that were cheaper and
stronger than pure Bakelite, even if they look a gungy black rather
than the lovely striped browns of Bakelite!  I doubt that pure Bakelite
was ever used for spool ends; I'm sure I've never seen anything that
looks like it, except some 1950s Artona products before they changed to
Nylon ends.

Any plastics historians out there who can give a more detailed answer?
I'd like to know.

Julian Dyer