>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

There was an item in the Home Constructors section of Electronics Australia
many years ago, where someone made a device like this and had it supplying
9V for a transistor radio.

The picture showed it running off an old Tilley kerosene lamp IIRC. The
construction was a disc of insulating material (possibly mica) with the
wires mounted radially through holes, like wheel spokes. They were then
connected so all wires were in series. A number of these discs were mounted
in a stack with the flame going up the middle, and the outside ends being
the cold junction.

This would have been back in the early 1960's, probably when the magazine
was still issued under its previous name which I cannot remember.
Unfortunately I cannot remember the wire used, but suspect it was constantan
and something else. I remember there being a bit of discussion in the item
about what wire to use to maximise the voltage.

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