A Brief History of Metallography:I.The Beginning

In the beginning of the 19th century Widmansttten used diluted water solution of nitric acid to etch a slice of iron meteorite and observed an oriented pattern of Fe\|Ni austenite, anticipating the birth of metallography. In 1863 Sorby examined iron and steel specimens prepared by grinding, polishing, and etching by means of a reflection microscope and observed pearlite composed of fine cementite and ferrite lamellae. he has also discussed the possible transformations occurred in quenching and annealing of steels. This announced the birth of metallography. During the shift of the 19th century, Martens and Osmond made important contribution to the development of metallography and its application in the metal industry. In the meantime, Roberts\|Austen and Roozeboom constructed the preliminary Fe\|C phase diagram, which laid the foundation of metallography. Coming to the fifties of the 20th century, metallography developed successively into physical metallurgy and materials science.