Jean Charles Athanase Peltier accidentally discovered the Peltier effect while investigating electricity. He connected copper and bismuth wires to a battery, causing one junction to get hot and the other to get cold. This effect can be used for refrigeration, but is inefficient and has other disadvantages. Despite this, it has great technological potential and is easily portable and cost effective. Peltier studied other physical phenomena for the rest of his life.
The Peltier effect was an unintentional discovery that Jean Charles Athanase Peltier made when he was investigating electricity. In an experiment that he would remember for the rest of his life, Peltier spliced copper wire and bismuth wire together and connected them to each other, then to a battery. When he turned on the battery, one of the two wire junctions got hot, while the other junction got cold. If the cold joint was placed inside an insulated box, it became a low-efficiency refrigerator.
Peltier probably didn’t know that he would be one of the first inventors of the refrigerator. Modern students are often introduced to Peltier as a physicist, but might be surprised to find that he didn’t study physics until he retired as a watchmaker at the age of 30. Regardless of his experience in the field, however, the contributions he made to physics were immense.
The Peltier effect is sometimes coupled with its inverse, called the Seebeck effect, and the two effects may be related to a third one, the Thomson effect. Together, the Peltier, Seebeck and Thomson effects are different components of the same scientific principle. Essentially, they show that electricity can cause a difference in heat at the junction of two different metals connected to each other.
This effect has been superseded by other heating or cooling methods for the same reason it first became popular: While the process and usage of the effect is simple, it is also inefficient. The Peltier effect dissipates quite a bit of heat; therefore, using it in a practical way involves finding a way to deal with this excess. Putting a fan in your fridge to take the heat away is a popular means of making it more practical, but it can also be an expensive fix.
A Peltier element has a number of disadvantages besides inefficiency. It uses a lot of electricity and creates much more heat than it carries, which can easily lead to overheating if the extra heat isn’t compensated for. Condensation is another potentially dangerous problem, which occurs if components are cooled too much. This can lead to a short between the elements, which is never a good thing when dealing with electronics.
All negatives aside, the Peltier effect has great technological potential. It is very reliable, and having no moving parts, it rarely needs maintenance. Unlike other types of cooling systems, the Peltier method is easily portable and cost effective. Of course, Jean Peltier didn’t know the true future of the physics behind his discovery, and probably didn’t think about it as much as he did for his other interests. For the rest of his life, he studied other physical phenomena, including the boiling point of water at high altitudes and atmospheric electricity.
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