page_title: Harry Brearley
section_title: The accidental discovery
hierarchical_section_title: Harry Brearley / Stainless steel / The accidental discovery
caption_attribution_description: English: Source: NY Times from January 31, 1915, as retrieved from http://firstmention.com/stainlesssteel.aspx Source: NY Times from January 31, 1915, as retrieved from http://firstmention.com/stainlesssteel.aspx
context_page_description: Harry Brearley
  was an English metallurgist, credited with the invention of "rustless steel". Based in Sheffield, his invention brought affordable cutlery to the masses, and saw an expansion of the city’s traditional cutlery trade.
context_section_description: In order to undertake metallography to study the microstructure of the experimental alloys (the main factor responsible for a steel's mechanical properties) it was necessary to polish and etch the metallic samples produced. For a carbon steel, a dilute solution of nitric acid in alcohol is sufficient to produce the required etching, but Brearley found that the new chromium steels were very resistant to chemical attack.
caption: Announcement of Brearley's stainless steel discovery as it appeared in the 1915 New York Times.[6]
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