The stretching and superheating of liquids

This paper contains an account of various methods which have been used to superheat a liquid and to subject it to negative pressures. After a consideration of some of the basic physics of these processes there is e description of the celebrated Berthelot method of stretching a liquid statically together with recent developments using this technique. This is followed by an account of work involving the application of tension to a liquid at high stressing rates. Spark-gap and laser methods of producing single cavities in a liquid are then discussed. Finally a novel way of superheating a droplet of a test liquid contained in a ‘host’ liquid is described.