ABSTRACT
High pressures are now very widespread both as a means of studying the nature of substances and phenomena occurring in them and even more so as a means of obtaining new materials (synthesis under high pressure) and processing of the already known materials (hydroextrusion). Since the pioneering studies at high pressures by P. Bridgman, the range of organizations and individuals involved in research in this area has been unusually expanded; only in the U.S. investigations are carried out in more than 200 laboratories and companies, extensive research is conducted in England, Japan, Sweden, France, Australia, Germany. There is, besides the world famous seven-volume collection of selected works of P. Bridgman [I.1], a large number of monographs, reviews, conference proceedings and selected papers on this issue; there is an extensive literature in Russian [I.2-I.21], international and regional conferences are organised; a special journal is published (High Temperatures – High Pressure), bibliographies are regularly published literature.
