In our earlier monograph "Mlcrohardness of Metals" 1], published in 1962, we attempted to correlate a variety of investigations scattered throughout a number of journals with the gen eral theme of solving problems of physicochemical analysis and metallography by microhard ness measurements. The publication of "Microhardness of Metals" promoted the widespread use of this tech nique in studying physicochemical phenomena in various materials. In recent years the micro hardness method has been used most extensively in studying semiconducting materials, and this has necessitated the revision of...