Jump to content

Page:Conservationofen00stew.djvu/132

From Wikisource
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
116
THE CONSERVATION OF ENERGY.

a case where the energy of heat has been changed into that of electrical separation. In other words, a certain amount of heat has passed out of existence as heat, while in its place a certain amount of electrical separation has been obtained.

161. Let us next see under what circumstances heat is changed into electricity in motion. This transmutation takes place in thermo-electricity.


Fig. 12.
Suppose, for instance, that we have a bar of copper or antimony, say copper, soldered to a bar of bismuth, as in Fig. 12. Let us now heat one of the junctions, while the other remains cool. It will be found that a current of positive electricity circulates round the bar, in the direction of the arrow-head, going from the bismuth to the copper across the heated junction, the existence of which may be detected by means of a compass needle, as we see in the figure.

Here, then, we have a case in which heat energy goes out of existence, and is converted into that of an electric current, and we may even arrange matters so as to make, on this principle, an instrument which shall be an extremely delicate test of the existence of heat.

By having a number of junctions of bismuth and