PELTIER, JEAN CHARLES A. - DISCOVERY OF THE "PELTIER-EFFECT"

Nouvelle Expériences sur la Caloricité des courans électriques.

(Paris, Crochard, 1834). No wrappers. In: "Annales de Chimie et de Physique", 2. Series, Tome 56, Cahier 4 (last issue of tome 56). Entire issue offered. Pp. 337-444. Peltier's paper: pp. 371-386. The text calls for a plate, but not present here.

First printing of the paper in which Peltier describes his discovery of the "Peltier-Effect", the thermo-electric cooling and heating of an electrical junction dependent on the direction of the current.

"Stimulated by the work of Nobili, Peltier constructed a sensitive galvanometer to measure the conductivities of antimony and bismuth for small currents. Peltier's use of small samples of these nonductile materials was fortunate because the anomalous behavior of these materials led him to construct a thermoelectric thermoscope and to measure the temperature distribution along a series of thermocouple circuits. He discovered that a cooling effect can take place at one junction and an excessive heating at the other. He then confirmed this discovery by using an air thermometer in place of the thermoscope. Peltier did not pursue the effect he had discovered, and its importence was not fully recognized until after the thermodynamic work of William Thomson twenty years later."(DSB X, p. 500).

Wheeler Gift no 2684. - Ronald's Library, p. 389. - Parkinson "Breakthroughs" 1834 P.

Order-nr.: 43654