JOURNAL 



OF THE 



WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Vol. VIII OCTOBER 4, 1918 No. 16 



PHYSICS. — Some peculiar thermoelectric effects. Paul D. Foote 

 and T. R. Harrison, Bureau of Standards. 



Benedicks^ has recently published a description of experimental 

 work from which the conclusion was drawn that a nonsym- 

 metrical temperature gradient in a homogeneous wire gives rise 

 to a galvanometrically measurable thermoelectric emf; Dr. 

 Benedicks claims priority for this discovery and proposes the 

 following table as a summary of the discoveries in thermo- 

 electricit}^ 



Effects of the kind described by Benedicks have been long 

 observed at the Geophysical Laboratory of this city, and at the 

 Bureau of Standards especially in connection with the routine 

 homogeneity testing of thermocouples. We have found that 

 thermoelectric emfs may be developed by touching a hot wire 

 to a cold wire of the same material, by crossing two wires and 



1 Compt. Rend. 163: 751-3. 

 Metallurgie 15:329-32. 1918. 



1916. Compt. Rend. 165:391-4. 1917. Rev. d. 



545 



