Page:PoyntingTransfer.djvu/13

Rh (4.) Thermoelectric circuits.

Let us first take the case of a circuit composed of two metals, neither of which has any effect. Let us suppose the current at the hot junction flows from the metal A to the metal B, fig. 4. According to Professor {{sc|Tait's]] theory it would appear that



the E.M.I. at the hot junction is to that at the cold as the absolute temperature at the hot is to that at the cold junction. If the current is steady there is probably then a sudden rise in potential from A to B at the hot junction, a gradual fall along B, a sudden fall at the cold junction—less, however, than the sudden rise at the other—and a gradual fall along A. The level surfaces will then all start from the hot junction, the higher ones cutting the circuit at successive points along B, several converging at the cold junction, and the rest cutting the circuit at successive points along A. The heat at the hot junction is converted into electric and magnetic energy, which here moves outwards, since the current is against the E.M.I. Some of this energy converges upon B and A, to be converted into heat, according to {{sc|Joule}}'s law, and some on the cold junction, there producing the {{sc|Peltier}} heating effect.

Let us now suppose that we have a circuit of the same two metals, now all at the same temperature, but with a battery interposed in B, which sends a current in the same direction as before (fig. 5). Then if C be the junction which was hot, and D that which was cold in the last case, we know that the current will tend to cool C and to heat D. In going from A to B at C there will be a sudden rise of potential, and in going from B to A at D there will be a sudden fall. Then, since the potential falls, as we go with the current along A, there will be a point on A near C which has the