Some aspects of the applications of wire chambers in high energy physics experiments at large accelerators

An application of proportional and drift chambers in four large spectrometers at the accelerators of IHEP Serpukhov and CERN Geneva is described. An operation of wire chambers at high intensities and high multiplicities of particles is discussed. The results of investigations of their efficiencies, spatial resolution (for one and two-dimensional readout) and long term stability are presented. Problems of preselection of a given class of events are discussed. The systems for preselection of defined multiplicities or a scattering angle of particles, in which proportional chambers have been used, are described and the results of their application in the real experiments are presented. (author)