OF ENERGY ]N THE ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD. 
355 
(4.) Thermoelectric circuits. 
Let us first take the case of a circuit composed of two metals, neither of which has 
any Thomson effect. Let us suppose the current at the hot junction from the metal 
A to the metal B, fig. 4. According to Professor Tait’s theory it would appear that 
Fig. 4. 
the E.M.I. at the hot junction is to that at the cold as the absolute temperature at 
the hot is to that at the cold junction. If the current is steady there is probably then 
a sudden rise in potential from A to B at the hot junction, a gradual fall along B, a 
sudden fall at the cold junction—less, however, than the sudden rise at the other— 
and a gradual fall along A. The level surfaces will then all start from the hot 
junction, the higher ones cutting the circuit at successive points along B, several 
converging at the cold junction, and the rest cutting the circuit at successive points 
along A. The heat at the hot junction is converted into electric and magnetic energy, 
which here moves outwards, since the current is against the E.M.I. Some of this 
energy converges upon B and A, to be converted into heat, according to Joule’s law, 
and some on the cold junction, there producing the Peltier heating effect. 
Let us now suppose that we have a circuit of the same two metals, now all at the 
same temperature, but with a battery interposed in B, which sends a current in the 
same direction as before (fig. 5). Then if C be the junction which was hot, and D 
that which was cold in the last case, we-know that the current will tend to cool C and 
to heat D. In going from A to B at C there will be a sudden rise of potential, and 
in going from B to A at D there will be a sudden fall. Then, since the potential falls, 
as we go with the current along A, there will be a point on A near C which has the 
2 z 2 
