What exactly is Indium's ability to stabilize non-ferrous metals?

I was reading the [History](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indium#History) section about Indium on Wikipedia when I came across the following sentence: 



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> In 1924, indium was found to have a valued ability to stabilize non-ferrous metals, which was the first significant use for the element.
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I'm wondering if the ability is to improve crystallinity, structural stability of alloys, resistance to corrosion, or something else.




All I did was click on the reference from the History wikipedia link above for the sentence you were talking about. The sentence comes from a paragraph of a manuscript which is found here: <http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ed011p270>


Note the bolded part, that was what is meant. 


**"** Its[Indium's] identification as well as its name came from the beautiful indigo-blue line which it so prominently displays in its spectrum. Its commercial development came as the result of the knowledge that it should be a valuable stabilizer of non-ferrous metals ***much as chromium is a stabilizer of the ferrous metals.*** **"**




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Above is quote from: 


French, Sidney J. (1934). "A story of indium". Journal of Chemical Education 11 (5): 270. Bibcode:1934JChEd..11..270F. doi:10.1021/ed011p270.


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