Thermoelectric phenomenon was discovered more than 180 years ago by scientist Seebeck Thomas Johann, who lived in Tallinn. In 1822 the results of his works were summarized in reports to Prussian Academy of Sciences, stating that if the ends of the circuits consisting of two heterogeneous metals having different temperatures were closed, a magnetic needle placed near would behave as if a magnet applied. Seebeck calculated that the rotation angle depended on difference of the temperature values at the circuit. Later this phenomenon was termed as Seebeck effect.
However the scientist himself denied the electrical nature of the phenomenon. In his article “The Magnetic Polarization of Some Metals and Ores Produced by Temperature difference” it was explained that magnetization occurred as a result of the temperature differences exposure.
The term “thermal electricity” was first introduced by Danish physicist, the researcher of electromagnetism phenomenon, Oersted Hans Christian, while Seebeck himself used the term “thermo magnetism”.
Due to vast experience in studies of circuit junctions under the influence of different temperatures Seebeck has accumulated immense number of experimental materials, which lately backed him up in discovery the thermoelectric row.
12 years after the thermal electricity was discovered by Seebeck, Peltier effect (the phenomenon opposite to Seebeck effect) was also discovered. In his experiments Peltier determined that whenever current passes two conductors junction in one direction the heat is released, and while passing the other direction it is absorbed.
As well as Seebeck Peltier himself couldn’t interpret the experiment results rightly. Only in 1858 William Thomson issued an explanations to both effects and described their interrelationship. The data received let Thomson discover the third thermoelectric effect – heat is absorbed or produced in the conductor under influence of current and temperature gradient. Later that phenomenon was termed as Thomson effect.
