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Caption: SWE - Proceedings of the First International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists
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the microscope, their reaction with inclusions and grain boundaries could also be followed. In other words, a wealth of direct evidence had become available for the formulation of mechanisms of deformation and fracture of metals. Such progress steps were perhaps minor when one thinks of the release of nuclear energy; they were enormous to a metallurgist whose field was not yet a science; they were fascinating to me when I had the opportunity to be an observer, As a personal point, to fit in the theme of this program, I should mention that my own efforts were not associated with the designs whose outstanding character I have tided to convey in a few words. They were of a far less glamorous nature. I have often spent hours polishing, etching and replicating samples finally to lose the specimen when trying to place it in the holder for examination. Repeatedly, the tweezers would escape from my fingers and, although equilibrium and statistics would dictate otherwise, they always fell on their sharp points which were ruined. It was not rare to find me on four legs on the floor looking for an aperture or a fine screw, a very undignified attitude when VIP visitors came in unexpectedly. Procedures, in this apparently highly scientific word, were sometimes questionable to me. For instance, it is customary to breathe on a replica before stripping it from the surface of the metal to loosen it. I have often been tempted to make a study of the effect of various diets, especially liquid diets, on the ease of stripping, that is replica stripping. In spite of all these hardships and incongruities, when a microstructure is revealed by the microscope for the first time, it is a joy that makes up for very many bad hours, and that, I believe, no one would wish to miss. VI-41
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