Concerned primarily with the stability of as-delivered, rolled, structural steel shapes of the I or WF type, this discussion considers the influence of residual stresses on the load carrying capacity of compressed members.Both the pure axial load case and that of combined thrust and bending due to end moments, eccentric or lateral loads, etc. have been included.While the procedures presented could be extended to include as a basic material property the influence of a curved type of of stress-strain relationship (in addition to the apparent nonlinearity due to residual stresses) the numerical work involved in obtaining equations or graphs similar to those shown herein would be much greater.It should be noted at the onset that the problem under consideration (that is, the condition of stability being discussed) is that of excessive bending. For the axially loaded member, a limiting case of the generalized beam-column, the first possibility of lateral deformation from the straight equilibrium position will be considered.As has been demonstrated both analytically and experimentally, this initiation of bending at the tangent modulus load is a lower limit to the true carrying capacity of the member.Further, for most as-delivered rolled shapes it represents a good approximation to the actual maximum load the member can sustain.