ABSTRACT
References .......................................................................................................................... 735
Stainless steels are frequently classified according to their microstructure into five types:
austenitic, ferritic, martensitic, duplex (ferritic-austenitic), and precipitation-hardenable
(PH). More common types, such as the austenitic, ferritic, and martensitic stainless steels,
have been discovered in the first decade of the 20th century. This brief historical introduction
[1-4] initially deals with the century before the actual discovery of stainless steel and the
following section will describe the discovery of each of the five types of stainless steels.
