Blaschke addition and convex polyhedra

This is an extended version of a talk on October 4, 2004 at the research seminar ``Differential geometry and applications'' (headed by Academician A. T. Fomenko) at Moscow State University. The paper contains an overview of available (but far from well-known) results about the Blaschke addition of convex bodies, some new theorems on the monotonicity of the volume of convex bodies (in particular, convex polyhedra with parallel faces) as well as description of a software for visualization of polyhedra with prescribed outward normals and face areas.