Abstract
WHEN an oxygen-coal gas flame is directed on to two electrodes kept at temperatures differing by several hundred degrees, a potential difference of several volts develops between the electrodes. By increasing the conductivity of the flame with alkali vapour and the area of contact between flame and electrodes, and by reducing the length of the current path in the flame, currents up to several amperes have been drawn from this or similar systems. S. Klein, who first investigated this effect1–3, found that the E.M.F. depends apparently on the temperature difference between the electrodes and is essentially independent of the electrode materials and the composition of the flame gas used. However, the origin of the ‘calorelectric force’ in such a heat-to-electricity converter remained obscure.
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References
Klein, S., Proc. Conf. Ioniz. Phen., Munich, 1961 (Amsterdam, 1962).
Klein, S., C.R. Acad. Sci., Paris, 251, 65 (1960).
Klein, S., C.R. Acad. Sci., Paris, 251, 2492 (1960).
Gaydon, A. G., and Wolfhard, H. G., Flames (London, 1960).
von Engel, A., Ionized Gases (Oxford, 1955).
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COZENS, J., VON ENGEL, A. New Calorelectric Effect. Nature 193, 1170–1171 (1962). https://doi.org/10.1038/1931170a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1931170a0
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