More Miracles Ahead 265 



We have long known that "heat" can be generated by put- 

 ting two antagonistic personalities side by side at the dinner 

 table. The scientist can generate electric power by putting 

 two dissimilar metals together. Seeback demonstrated in 1821 

 that an electric current was produced when an iron and a cop- 

 per wire were twisted together and heated. This is called a 

 thermocouple. Iron and copper produce very small amounts 

 of electricity, but recently scientists have found alloys whose 

 dissimilarities turn out larger amounts of electric power. The 

 sun's rays can be used to heat these thermocouples. Or you 

 might use coal or oil to heat huge thermocouples and produce 

 electricity. If this "impossible" (?) method is perfected, the 

 roundabout way of using coal or oil to produce steam, and 

 steam to generate electric power, will be abolished. 



Two antagonistic people may cause the temperature to drop 

 as they exchange "frigid" stares. The thermocouple can do 

 this too. If an electric current is passed through a thermo- 

 couple, a refrigerating effect is produced. 



Raymond F. Yates declared in his 2,100 Needed Inven- 

 tions: 1 



"If an inventor could apply this effect, discovered by Pel- 

 tier in 1834, he could evolve an electric refrigerator that 

 would not have one moving part, no gas, no compressors, or 

 electric motors. Not only that, but such a refrigerator would 

 cost one-third of present ice boxes and operate at three times 

 the efficiency. . . . There is a million dollars in it for the 

 man who can turn the trick." 



And we can rest assured that there are men who will bet 

 they can do it. 



Revolutionary advances in industry may also be brought 

 about if scientists lick the problem of transmitting cheap elec- 

 tric power by radio. This would mean that manufacturing 



1 Yates, Raymond, 2,100 Needed Inventions. New York, Wilfred Funk, 

 Inc., 1942. 



