This collection of classic papers in shock compression science makes available not only some of the most important classic papers on shock waves by Poisson, Rankine, Earnshaw, Riemann, and Hugoniot, which remain important references, but also some pathbreaking papers from the 1940s and 1950s on shocks in solids and fluids by such theorists as Bethe, and Weyl. Although their ideas and results remain of current interest, many of these papers have been hard to find, since the journals in which they were published are not available in many libraries. The editors have also translated papers written in French to make them accessible to a wider audience. This collection is thus not only a valuable historical resource but also a vital reference for those working in the field.

This work marks a stage in the evolution of a scientific and technical field which has been developed by the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (CEA) over several decades. Many members of the staff of the CEA have won re nown in this field, and their work has brought it to the high degree of excel lence for which it is internationally recognized today. These scientists had to consider every aspect of the field, as it concerned: modeling, which has recourse to fluid thermodynamics, molecular phys ics, and chemistry; numerical evaluation, which relies on mathematical analysis and data processing; and experiments in the firing area, which require specific stress generators and instrumentation. Whilst this book is a testament to the activity and success of staff of the CEA, it also reviews a number ofthe advances made in the discipline. How ever, it is not intended to be an exhaustive account of those advances; it is assumed that the reader can, if desired, consult the standard monographs, and more recent, more specialized works (notably W.C. Davis and W. Fickett, and C.L. Mader). The history of the discipline is interesting in itself, and also as an illustra tion of the causes which lead to progress in a coherent body of scientific work. I should like to make some comments on this progress, of which there is a fascinating summary in the introduction, and which will figure largely throughout the work."

The field of shock compression science has a long and rich history involving contributions of mathematicians, physicists and engineers over approximately two hundred years. The middle of the nineteenth century was an especially ac tive period with the contributions of Riemann, Rankine and Hugoniot, among others. The middle of the twentieth century saw another increase in activity re lated to shock compression of condensed matter as a result of military applica tions. It was also recognized that shock compression provided a means of sub jecting solids and liquids to extreme states of temperature and pressure difficult to achieve by static means. It has thus become an academic study in its own right. The principal modem contributions to this science were summarized in the landmark paper by Rice, McQueen and Walsh [Solid State Physics, Vol. 6, pp. 1-63, 1958]. As this field has continued to mature, interest has increased in tracing the early papers that have served as the foundations of the field. Cheret [Shock Compression of Condensed Matter - 1989, Elsevier Sci. Pub. B. V. , pp 11-19, 1990) has contributed to this literature with his review of the life of Hugoniot on the one-hundredth anniversary of the publication of Hugoniot's classic paper on the propagation of discontinuous waves in gases. This contribution prompted additional historical investigation involving the precursors to Hugoniot.