Thomson had, however, previous to the publication of this paper, applied thermodynamic theory to thermoelectric phenomena. A long series of papers containing experimental investigations, and entitled, "Electrodynamic Qualities of Metals," are placed in the second volume of his _Mathematical and Physical Papers_. This series begins with the Bakerian Lecture (published in the _Transactions of the Royal Society_ for 1856) which includes an account of the remarkable experimental work accomplished during the preceding four or five years by the volunteer laboratory corps in the newly-established physical laboratory in the old College. The subjects dealt with are the Electric Convection of Heat, Thermoelectric Inversions, the Effects of Mechanical Strain and of Magnetisation on the Thermoelectric Qualities of Metals, and the Effects of Tension and Magnetisation on the Electric Conductivity of Metals. It is only possible to give here a very short indication of the thermodynamic treatment, and of the nature of Thomson's remarkable discovery of the electric convection of heat. It was found by Seebeck in 1822 that when a circuit is formed of two different metals (without any cell or battery) a current flows round the circuit if the two junctions are not at the same temperature. For example, if the two metals be rods of antimony and bismuth, joined at their extremities so as to form a complete circuit, and one junction be warmed while the other is kept at the ordinary temperature, a current flows across the hot junction in the direction from bismuth to antimony. Similarly, if a circuit be made of a copper wire and an iron wire, a current passes across the warmer junction from copper to iron. The current strength--other things being the same--depends on the metals used; for example, bismuth and antimony are more effective than other metals. It was found by Peltier that when a current, say from a battery, is sent round such a circuit, that junction is cooled and that junction is heated by the passage of the current, which, being respectively heated and cooled, would without the cell have caused a current to flow in the same direction. Thus the current produced by the difference of temperature of the junctions causes an absorption of heat from the warmer junction, and an evolution of heat at the colder junction. This naturally suggested to Thomson the consideration of a circuit of two metals, with the junctions at different temperatures, as a heat engine, of which the hot junction was the source and the cold junction the refrigerator, while the heat generated in the circuit by the current and other work performed, if there was any, was the equivalent of the difference between the heat absorbed and the heat evolved. Of course in such an arrangement there is always irreversible loss of heat by conduction; but when such losses are properly allowed for the circuit is capable of being correctly regarded as a reversible engine.