Jean Charles Athanase Peltier (; ; 22 February 1785 – 27 October 1845) was a French

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

. He was originally a watch dealer, but at the age of 30 began experiments and observations in physics. Peltier was the author of numerous papers in different departments of physics. His name is specially associated with the thermal effects at junctions in a voltaic circuit, the

Peltier effect The thermoelectric effect is the direct conversion of temperature differences to electric voltage and vice versa via a thermocouple. A thermoelectric device creates a voltage when there is a different temperature on each side. Conversely, when ...

. Peltier introduced the concept of

electrostatic induction Electrostatic induction, also known as "electrostatic influence" or simply "influence" in Europe and Latin America, is a redistribution of electric charge in an object that is caused by the influence of nearby charges. In the presence of a charg ...

(1840), based on the modification of the distribution of electric charge in a material under the influence of a second object closest to it and its own electrical charge.

Biography

Peltier trained as a watchmaker; until his 30s was a watch dealer. Peltier worked with Abraham Louis Breguet in Paris. Later, he worked with various

experiments An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...

electrodynamics In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge. It is the second-strongest of the four fundamental interactions, after the strong force, and it is the dominant force in the interactions o ...

and noticed that in an electronic element when current flows through, a temperature gradient or temperature difference is generated at a current flow. In 1836 he published his work and in 1838 his findings were confirmed by

Emil Lenz Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz (; ; also Emil Khristianovich Lenz, russian: Эмилий Христианович Ленц; 12 February 1804 – 10 February 1865), usually cited as Emil Lenz or Heinrich Lenz in some countries, was a Russian physic ...

. Peltier dealt with topics from the

atmospheric electricity Atmospheric electricity is the study of electrical charges in the Earth's atmosphere (or that of another planet). The movement of charge between the Earth's surface, the atmosphere, and the ionosphere is known as the global atmospheric electr ...

and

meteorology Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not ...

. In 1840, he published a work on the causes of

hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

. Peltier's numerous papers are devoted in great part to atmospheric electricity, waterspouts, cyanometry and polarization of sky-light, the temperature of water in the spheroidal state, and the boiling-point at high elevations. There are also a few devoted to curious points of natural history. His name will always be associated with the thermal effects at junctions in a voltaic circuit, a discovery of importance comparable with those of Seebeck and Cumming.The New Werner Twentieth Century Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica: A Standard Work of Reference in Art, Literature, Science, History, Geography, Commerce, Biography, Discovery and Invention, Volume 18. Werner Company, 1907
p491
/ref> Peltier discovered the

calorific The calorie is a unit of energy. For historical reasons, two main definitions of "calorie" are in wide use. The large calorie, food calorie, or kilogram calorie was originally defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of on ...

effect of

electric current An electric current is a stream of charged particles, such as electrons or ions, moving through an electrical conductor or space. It is measured as the net rate of flow of electric charge through a surface or into a control volume. The moving pa ...

passing through the junction of two different

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

s. This is now called the

(or

Peltier–Seebeck effect The thermoelectric effect is the direct conversion of temperature differences to electric voltage and vice versa via a thermocouple. A thermoelectric device creates a voltage when there is a different temperature on each side. Conversely, when ...

). By switching the direction of current, either heating or cooling may be achieved. Junctions always come in pairs, as the two different metals are joined at two points. Thus heat will be moved from one junction to the other.

Peltier effect

The ''Peltier effect'' is the presence of heating or cooling at an electrified junction of two different conductors (1834). His great experimental discovery was the heating or cooling of the junctions in a heterogeneous circuit of metals according to the direction in which an electric current is made to pass round the circuit. This reversible effect is proportional directly to the strength of the current, not to its square, as is the irreversible generation of heat due to resistance in all parts of the circuit. It is found that, if a current pass from an external source through a circuit of two metals, it cools one junction and heats the other. It cools the junction if it be in the same direction as the thermoelectric current which would be caused by directly heating that junction. In other words, the passage of a current from an external source produces in the junctions of the circuit a distribution of temperature which leads to the weakening of the current by the superposition of a thermo-electric current running in the opposite direction. When electromotive current is made to flow through an electronic junction between two conductors (A and B), heat is removed at the junction. To make a typical pump, multiple junctions are created between two plates. One side heats and the other side cools. A dissipation device is attached to the hot side to maintain cooling effect on the cold side. Typically, the use of the Peltier effect as a

heat pump A heat pump is a device that can heat a building (or part of a building) by transferring thermal energy from the outside using a refrigeration cycle. Many heat pumps can also operate in the opposite direction, cooling the building by removing ...

device involves multiple junctions in series, through which a current is driven. Some of the junctions lose heat due to the Peltier effect, while others gain heat. Thermoelectric pumps exploit this phenomenon, as do

thermoelectric cooling Thermoelectric cooling uses the Peltier effect to create a heat flux at the junction of two different types of materials. A Peltier cooler, heater, or thermoelectric heat pump is a solid-state active heat pump which transfers heat from one side o ...

Peltier modules found in refrigerators. The ''Peltier effect'' generated at the junction per unit time,

\dot

, is equal to where, :

\Pi_A

(

\Pi_B

) is the

Peltier coefficient The thermoelectric effect is the direct conversion of temperature differences to electric voltage and vice versa via a thermocouple. A thermoelectric device creates a voltage when there is a different temperature on each side. Conversely, when ...

Yu. A. Skripnik, A. I. Khimicheva. Methods and devices for measuring the Peltier coefficient of an

inhomogeneous Homogeneity and heterogeneity are concepts often used in the sciences and statistics relating to the uniformity of a substance or organism. A material or image that is homogeneous is uniform in composition or character (i.e. color, shape, siz ...

electric circuit. Measurement Techniques July 1997, Volume 40, Issue 7, pp 673-677See also: Constant current source with thermal compensation of conductor A ( conductor B), and :

I

is the

(from A to B). ''Note:'' Total heat generated at the junction is ''not'' determined by the Peltier effect alone, being influenced by Joule heating and

thermal gradient A temperature gradient is a physical quantity that describes in which direction and at what rate the temperature changes the most rapidly around a particular location. The temperature gradient is a dimensional quantity expressed in units of degre ...

effects. The

s represent how much heat is carried per unit charge. With charge current continuous across a junction, the associated heat flow will develop a discontinuity if

\Pi_A

and

\Pi_B

are different. The Peltier effect can be considered as the back-action counterpart to the

Seebeck effect The thermoelectric effect is the direct conversion of temperature differences to electric voltage and vice versa via a thermocouple. A thermoelectric device creates a voltage when there is a different temperature on each side. Conversely, when ...

(analogous to the back-emf in magnetic induction): if a simple thermoelectric circuit is closed then the Seebeck effect will drive a current, which in turn (via the Peltier effect) will always transfer heat from the hot to the cold junction. The true importance of this "Peltier effect" in the explanation of thermoelectric currents was first clearly pointed out by

James Prescott Joule James Prescott Joule (; 24 December 1818 11 October 1889) was an English physicist, mathematician and brewer, born in Salford, Lancashire. Joule studied the nature of heat, and discovered its relationship to mechanical work (see energy). ...

; and

Sir William Thomson William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, (26 June 182417 December 1907) was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer born in Belfast. Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, he did important ...

further extended the subject by showing, both theoretically and experimentally, that there is something closely analogous to the Peltier effect when the heterogeneity is due, not to difference of quality of matter, but to difference of temperature in contiguous portions of the same material. Shortly after Peltier's discovery was published, Lenz used the effect to freeze small quantities of water by the cold developed in a bismuth-antimony junction when a voltaic current was passed through the metals in the order named.

Publications

''Listed by date'' * Collection of pamphlets on electricity. 1833. * Collection of pamphlets on electromagnetism and electricity. 1835. * Observations sur une nouvelle espèce de floscularia. 1838. * Notice des faits principaux et des instrumens nouveaux ajoutés à la science de l'électricité. impr. E.J. Bailly, 1839. * Notice de faits principaux ajoutés à la science de l'Electricité. Bailly, 1839.
Observations sur les multiplicateurs et sur les piles thermo-électriques.
Imprimerie de E.J. Bailly, 1839. * Mémoire sur la formation des tables des rapports qu'il y a entre la force d'un courant électrique et la déviation des aiguilles des multiplicateurs: suivi de recherches sur les causes de perturbation des couples thermo-électriques et sur les moyens de s'en garantir dans leur emploi a la mesure des températures moyennes. E.-J. Bailly, 1839. *Mémoire sur les diverses espèces de brouillards. Hayez, 1841.
Météorologie: Observations et recherches expérimentales sur les causes qui concourent à la formation des trombes.
Soc. Belgian library, 1841. * Considérations générales sur l'éther, suivies d'une notice sur les étoiles filantes. rue de Seine Saint-Germain, 1844.
Essai sur la coordination des causes qui précèdent, produisent et accompagnent les phénomènes électriques.
Hayez, 1844. * Observations faites dans les Alpes sur la température d'ébullition de l'eau. Institut de France. Académie royale des sciences, 1844 * Lettre sur la cause des différences existent entre les résultats des expériences de MM. Bravais et Peltier sur la température de l'ébullition de l'eau et les résultats d'expériences de cabinet. Institute. April 22, 1844. (Reports, vol. 18, p. 768.)
Recherches sur la cause des variations barométriques.
Hayez. 1844. * De la cyanométrie et de la polarimétrie atmosphérique: ou notice sur les additions et les changements fait au cyano-polariscope de M. Arago, pour le rendre cyano- polarimètre dans l'observation de tous les points du ciel. 1845. * Notice sur le galvanisme. 1845. * Notice sur les fluides, les forces, et la foudre. rue de Bussy, 6, 1845 * Notice sur la vie et les travaux scientifiques. Bautruche, 1847. * Robert Hare (M.D., Professor of Chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania.),

James Pollard Espy James Pollard Espy (or the Storm King) (May 9, 1785 – January 24, 1860) was a U.S. meteorologist. Espy developed a convection theory of storms, explaining it in 1836 before the American Philosophical Society and in 1840 before the French Acadé ...

. Of the conclusion arrived at by a Committee of the Academy of Sciences of France, agreeably to which tornados are caused by heat; while agreeably to Peltier's report to the same body, certain insurers had been obliged to pay for a tornado as an electrical storm; also abstracts from Peltier's report; moreover, quotations shewing the ignorance which existed in the Academy respecting ..the meteor in question ..with objections to the opinions of Peltier and Espy. Second edition, revised. 1852. ''Other''
Notice des faits principaux et des instrumens nouveaux ajoutés à la science de l'Electricité par M. Peltier.
* Mémoires sur l'électricité des vapeurs, sur l'électricité atmosphérique et sur les trombes. Imprimerie de Cosson. * Météorologie électrique: Première partiePower Meteorology: Part One

References and notes

;General
The Annual Report Of The Board Of Regents Of The Smithsonian Institution
1867 Doc. No. 86. 1868
p158
. *

Florian Cajori Florian Cajori (February 28, 1859 – August 14 or 15, 1930) was a Swiss-American historian of mathematics. Biography Florian Cajori was born in Zillis, Switzerland, as the son of Georg Cajori and Catherine Camenisch. He attended schools first ...

A history of physics in its elementary branches
1922
p269
;Citations {{DEFAULTSORT:Peltier, Jean Charles Athanase 1785 births 1845 deaths People from Ham, Somme French physicists Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery