At intermediate to high temperature single and polycrystalline metals, alloys, ceramics and minerals often deform by the diffusion-controlled dislocation mechanism of power law creep at high stresses, but by a mechanism of Harper-Dorn (H-D) creep at low stresses. H-D creep is characterized by a stress exponent n of unity and an activation energy equal to that for power law creep and a strain rate independent of grain size. Several dislocation mechanisms have been proposed for H-D creep. Langdon and Yavari explain H-D creep from the climb of edge dislocations under conditions of vacancy saturation. According to Weertman and Blacic, H-D creep may be produced by a low-amplitude thermal cycling effect which causes a cyclic change in equilibrium point defect concentration. Raj postulated a mechanism with the generation of dislocations from surface sources controlling the strain rate. Ardell and Lee considered H-D creep as the result of a dislocation network coarsening. Based on the assumption of the presence of internal stress, Wu and Sherby and Ruano et al. treated Harper-Dorn creep as an extension of power law creep into the low stress region. It is the intent of this communication to show that H-D creep starts to operate at stresses equalmore » to the Peierls stress.« less