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Physics · Ch 2 — Current Electricity
Thomson showed that even within a SINGLE, uniform conductor (not a junction of two different metals at all), if two points along it are held at different temperatures, the density of free electrons at those two points will differ, and this difference in electron density itself creates a potential difference between the two points. This is the Thomson effect, and like the Seebeck and Peltier effects, it too is reversible. …
What this figure shows. Panel (a) shows a copper bar AB heated at its middle point C, with a current I flowing through it; the diagram labels the region from A to C as where heat is absorbed and the region from C to B as where heat is evolved, and marks that point C ends up at the higher electrical potential -- the signature of the 'positive Thomson effect', also se …