TY - JOUR
T1 - Who discovered the magnetocaloric effect?
T2 - Warburg, Weiss, and the connection between magnetism and heat
AU - Smith, Anders
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - A magnetic body changes its thermal state when subjected to a changing magnetic field. In particular, if done under adiabatic conditions, its temperature changes. For the past 15 years the magnetocaloric effect has been the focus of significant research due to its possible application for efficient refrigeration near room temperature. At the same time, it has become common knowledge within the magnetic refrigeration research community that the magnetocaloric effect was discovered by the German physicist E. Warburg in 1881. We re-examine the original literature and show that this is a misleading reading of what Warburg did, and we argue that the discovery of the effect should instead be attributed to P. Weiss and A. Piccard in 1917.
AB - A magnetic body changes its thermal state when subjected to a changing magnetic field. In particular, if done under adiabatic conditions, its temperature changes. For the past 15 years the magnetocaloric effect has been the focus of significant research due to its possible application for efficient refrigeration near room temperature. At the same time, it has become common knowledge within the magnetic refrigeration research community that the magnetocaloric effect was discovered by the German physicist E. Warburg in 1881. We re-examine the original literature and show that this is a misleading reading of what Warburg did, and we argue that the discovery of the effect should instead be attributed to P. Weiss and A. Piccard in 1917.
U2 - 10.1140/epjh/e2013-40001-9
DO - 10.1140/epjh/e2013-40001-9
M3 - Journal article
VL - 38
SP - 507
EP - 517
JO - European Physical Journal H
JF - European Physical Journal H
SN - 2102-6459
IS - 4
ER -