Stainless steel is an alloy of iron and chromium, or of iron, chromium, and nickel.
It is practically free of the problems of rust and ordinary corrosion. It looks much like silver, but it is not nearly so expensive. Modern surgery did not develop until the nineteenth century, after the discovery of anaesthetics, antiseptics, and X rays. An unknown people lived many years ago along the Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri rivers in the United States. The only traces left of these people are large earth and sand mounds.