Thermoelectricity

When an electric current is driven through a resistor, electrical energy is converted into thermal (heat) energy -- this is the everyday, familiar direction of the conversion. The REVERSE process, converting thermal energy directly into electrical energy, with no moving parts and no chemical reaction of the kind that powers an ordinary cell, was discovered by Thomas Johann Seebeck, and the phenomenon is named the Seebeck effect (or, more broadly, the thermoelectric effect) after him. Section 9.6.1 …