4. On a Mechanical Theory of Thermo-Electric Currents

Abstract

It was discovered by Peltier that heat is absorbed at a surface of contact of bismuth and antimony in a compound metallic conductor, when electricity traverses it from the bismuth to the antimony, and that heat is generated when electricity traverses it in the contrary direction. This fact, taken in connection with Joule's law of the electrical generation of heat in a homogeneous metallic conductor, suggests the following assumption, which is the foundation of the theory at present laid before the Royal Society.