The invention and use of stainless steel can be traced back to the First World War. At that time, British guns on the battlefield were always transported back to the rear because the barrels were worn and could not be used. The military production department ordered Brearley to develop high-strength wear-resistant alloy steel, specifically to solve the problem of barrel wear. Brearley and his assistants collected various types of steel produced at home and abroad, various alloy steels of different properties, and conducted performance tests on various machines of different properties, and then selected more suitable steels to make guns. One day, they experimented with an alloy steel containing a large amount of chromium. After the wear-resistant test, it was found that this alloy was not wear-resistant, indicating that it could not be used to make guns. So they recorded the experimental results and threw it into the corner. One day a few months later, an assistant ran to Brearley with a piece of shiny steel and said, "Sir, this is the alloy steel sent by Mr. Mullah that I found when I was cleaning the warehouse. Do you want to experiment and see what special effect it has!" "Okay!" Brearley said happily as he looked at the bright and dazzling steel.
The experimental results prove that it is a piece of stainless steel that is not afraid of acid, alkali, and salt. This stainless steel was invented by a German mullah in 1912, but the mullah did not know what this stainless steel was used for.
Brearley thought to himself: "This kind of steel that is not wear-resistant but corrosion-resistant cannot be used to make guns, can it be used to make tableware?" He did it right away and made stainless steel fruit knives, forks, spoons, fruit plates, folding knives, etc.
The stainless steel invented by Brearley obtained the British patent in 1916 and began mass production. Since then, the stainless steel accidentally discovered from the garbage dump has become popular all over the world, and Henry Brearley is also known as the "Father of Stainless Steel".