> > get enough for a thermal pile however :)
>
> I've just looked in my "Boys Book Of Proper Names For
> Things" and would like to amend my suggestion to
> "thermopile". There's an example of a marine battery
> using Strontium 90 called a thermopile, but I meant a
> device using the Seebeck effect of hot/cold junctions.
> There's an interesting example of a power source for a
> domestic radio from Russia in the 1930's. It consists
> of a zig-zag of thermocouple junctions in series arranged
> in a ring around an oil lamp. Half are in the flame, half are
> not

I quite possibly could have acquired one of these for little or nothing at
one stage but I missed out.

I remember seeing one of these in a magzine in my teenage years and lo &
behold, on arriving at the School of EE there was one hanging by chains from
the ceiling in one of the labs. Nobody seemed to know what it was but it was
immediately obvious that it was the same as the magazine picture. Close
inspection revealed Russian inscriptions (fair go).

It was still there when I finished my BE and also possibly still there when
I went back and did an ME 4 years later.
BUT somewhere along the way it slipped quietly away and odd are that they
just threw it out. Shame.

The NZ Railways had thermopiles that produced electricity from an LPG flame
source. According to my "heap" they were sold by tender in 1994.
According to TPILE item003 specs were -

Telan Thermoelectric Generator (model 2T4 etc)  (brand?)
Propane, Butane, Natural gas,
10 to 90 watts in 10 watt steps (modules?)
12V adj 12-16
24 volts adj 24-31
48 volts adj 48-56

Flameless combustion, catalytic bed of Pt coated AlO pellets
Bismuth Telluride thermoelectrics.



        RM






        Russell McMahon









>
> Could one could find a sufficient differential (outside
> of a geothermal or volcanic field) in the NZ bush to
> supply a few volts at uA ? Perhaps a parabolic reflector
> to concentrate sun light/sun heat for the hot junctions and
> free air for the cold ones ?
>
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