Jean Charles Athanase Peltier

Who was Jean Charles Athanase Peltier?

Jean Charles Athanase Peltier was a French physicist. He was originally a watch dealer, but at 30 years old took up experiments and observations in the field of physics.

Peltier was the author of numerous papers in different departments of physics, but his name is specially associated with the thermal effects at junctions in a voltaic circuit. He introduced the Peltier effect. Peltier also introduced the concept of electrostatic induction, based on the modification of the distribution of electric charge in a material under the influence of a second object closest to it and its own electrical charge. This effect has been very important in the recent development of non-polluting cooling mechanisms