The ‘legend’ of DSA® (Dimensionally Stable Anodes), one of the greatest technological breakthrough of the past 50 years of electrochemistry, is reviewed with the aim to emphasise the reasons for their success. In this respect, the industrial success, which came first, was due to factors differing from those responsible for the successive boom of fundamental research on the same materials. This article scrutinises these factors highlighting the aspects which make these materials so much intriguing.