  Liquid helium is crucial to conveniently vary magnetic field (H) and
temperature (T) giving access to a large region of (H, T) space; in stark
contrast with the effort currently required to explore a comparable region of
(P, T) space. The centenary of the liquefaction of helium is an appropriate
occasion to talk on the utilization of our facilities for studies across first
order phase transitions. We observed some interesting effects in variety of
systems traversing (H, T) space across the magnetic first order phase
transitions. We focus here on a few recent intriguing discoveries in the
half-doped manganites related to the coexistence of equilibrium phase, with a
glass-like phase having both structural and magnetic long-range order.
