Realization of Maxwell&rsquo;s Hypothesis: A Heat-Electric Conversion in Contradiction to the Kelvin Statement

Xinyong Fu; Zitao Fu

doi:10.20944/preprints201607.0028.v1

Preprint Creative Version 1 This version is not peer-reviewed

Version 1 : Received: 14 July 2016 / Approved: 14 July 2016 / Online: 14 July 2016 (11:01:36 CEST)
Version 2 : Received: 12 December 2016 / Approved: 13 December 2016 / Online: 13 December 2016 (10:19:44 CET)
Version 3 : Received: 14 December 2016 / Approved: 14 December 2016 / Online: 14 December 2016 (09:12:35 CET)
Version 4 : Received: 14 March 2017 / Approved: 14 March 2017 / Online: 14 March 2017 (13:33:44 CET)

In a vacuum tube, two identical and parallel Ag-O-Cs surfaces, with a work function of approximately 0.8eV, ceaselessly emit thermal electrons at room temperature. The thermal electrons are so controlled by a static uniform magnetic field that they can fly only from one Ag-O-Cs surface to the other, resulting in a potential difference and an electric current, and transferring a power to a resistance outside the tube. The ambient air is a single heat reservoir in the experiment, and all the heat extracted by the tube from the air is converted into electric energy without producing any other effect. The authors maintain that the experiment is in contradiction to the Kelvin statement of the second law of thermodynamics.

Maxwell’s demon; energy regeneration; energy circulation; entropy decreasing

Comment 1

Received: 5 February 2017
Commenter: Hanno Essén
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.

Comment: This article is clear and convincing. There is also a video of the expeiment. The current that is extracted from room temperature heat and a permanent magnetic field is maximum about 50 fA and the useful work that can be obtained from this is, of course, tiny, but we are dealing with matters of principle. If one can get any work out at all from a stationary system at constant temperature we have a form of violation fo the second law.

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Realization of Maxwell’s Hypothesis: A Heat-Electric Conversion in Contradiction to the Kelvin Statement

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