The inventor of Stainless Steel, Harry Brearley was born in Sheffield in 1871. He was the son of a steel melter, and left school at the age of twelve to begin work in a laboratory washing bottles. In his own time he undertook private study and attended night school, becoming an expert in the analysis of steel and its production. After establishing a reputation for solving metallurgical problems, Brearley was given an opportunity to set up the Brown Firth Laboratories in 1908. This was financed by two leading Sheffield steel …