Is Greenhouse Theory Based on a Botched Experiment?
Was Tyndall's famous 19th Century experiment a demonstration of the Thermoelectric Effect rather than the Greenhouse Effect?
This latest Atlas Report is one of the most controversial yet!
Here is a quick summary:
In 1859 Tyndall conducted one of the most influential experiments ever conducted that led to the discovery of the greenhouse effect.
While the experiment used the best measurement equipment of the day, more advanced technologies are now available.
Modern day mathematics, new spectroscopic techniques, and a better understanding of thermoelectrics reveal a potential blind spot in the 19th Century experiment.
With our 21st Century vantage point, did Tyndall’s observations actually demonstrate something called the thermoelectric effect, as opposed to the greenhouse effect?
Is the discovery of the greenhouse effect based on a botched experiment? I’ll let you be the judge…
Tyndall’s Famous Discovery
In his mid 19th Century experiments, Tyndall claimed to have discovered that certain gases in the atmosphere have properties that allow them to ‘absorb’ infrared (IR) radiation. The Irish physicist claimed that such properties allow the atmosphere to retain ‘heat’; a phenomenon that became known as the ‘greenhouse effect’.
How the experiment worked…
Tyndall passed light (aka radiation) through a sample tube containing, in turn, each of the main constituent gases of the atmosphere (carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen, etc.). The radiation was generated using a heated element at one end of the sample tube, and detected at the other end by a ‘thermopile’ (we will return to the function of the thermopile later).
Some of the gases appeared to allow the IR radiation to pass unaltered through the sample tube since the thermopile failed to detect any change at the other end after their introduction into the apparatus.
However, the radiation appeared to be ‘blocked’ in the presence of some other gases.
These ‘blocking’ (or absorbing) gases became known as the ‘greenhouse gases’.
How this experiment changed the World!
Here, in his own words, is how Tyndall applied his experimental observations to the atmosphere, forming the basis of greenhouse theory as it is understood today:
"when the heat is absorbed by the planet, it is so changed in quality that the rays emanating from the planet cannot get with the same freedom back into space. Thus the atmosphere admits of the entrance of solar heat; but checks its exit, and the result is a tendency to accumulate heat at the surface of the planet." John Tyndall, 1859
The importance of this discovery really cannot be overstated.
Greenhouse theory is, after all, the central pillar upon which the entire modern day Climate Change paradigm rests.
Tyndall’s Blind Spot
Let’s consider further the thermopile detector referred to earlier in Tyndall’s experiment and the broader principle upon which it is based, ‘thermoelectrics’.
This is where I think things start to get really interesting!
Thermoelectrics
The thermopile is a device that generates an electrical force in the presence of IR radiation.
The thermopile utilizes something known as the ‘thermoelectric effect’, and changes IR radiation into an electrical signal.1
REMINDER: As long as it’s temperature is above absolute zero, ALL matter emits IR radiation, all of the time!
Due to the relationship between an objects’ temperature and the IR radiation it emits, instruments are able to convert the strength of the electrical signal generated by the thermopile into a temperature reading without having to physically touch the object, even in the dark.
This principle of thermoelectrics is used in modern-day IR spectroscopy and IR cameras (also known as ‘thermal imaging cameras’, or ‘night vision cameras’).
Thermoelectric substances
Despite all substances emitting IR radiation, not all can cause a thermopile to generate an electric force. Accordingly, substances can be described as either thermoelectric or non-thermoelectric.2
Time for tea!
In the diagram below, an IR camera is pointed at a warm cup of tea. The IR camera ‘sees’ the tea. In other words, the IR radiation emitted from the warm beverage is visible to the thermopile within the IR camera. The thermopile changes the IR radiation into an electrical signal which is calibrated against temperature… and hey presto, the IR camera shows your cup of tea steaming away at a tempting 80 degrees Celsius!
Now, if a glass screen were placed between the IR camera and the cup of tea, the IR camera would take the temperature of the glass, presumably lower than that of the tea. The IR camera effectively ‘sees’ the glass and takes its’ temperature instead of the tea behind which it is now blocking. 3
Tyndall’s Unintended Demonstration of Thermoelectrics
Applying my simple experiment as an analogy of Tyndall’s experiment, the heated element would be the cup of tea (i.e. the source of radiation), and the sample gas would be the glass screen (i.e. the medium through which the radiation is passed). The IR camera would be the modern-day version of Tyndall’s thermopile and associated electrical instrumentation.
Taking the analogy a step further, it is my suggestion that the thermoelectric glass screen is analogous specifically to the greenhouse gas samples (carbon dioxide, water vapour, etc). This is illustrated in the figure below.
As a product of their thermoelectric properties, and just like the glass screen in my first example, the thermopile can ‘see’ the greenhouse gases when they are placed in front of the light source.
There is then a predictable ‘drop’ in thermopile output, associated with the detection of the thermoelectric (and colder) sample gas.
Originally attributed to IR radiation absorbing properties, the experiment was, in effect, a demonstration of the thermoelectric properties of the sample gases.
Quantum Mechanics and Raman Spectroscopy
Modern day calculation methods and technologies (not available in Tyndall’s day) appear to provide both theoretical and experimental validation for this potential confusion of greenhouse gas and thermoelectric properties:
Quantum mechanics mathematically predicts absorption capabilities for the non-greenhouse gases that are uniquly attributed to greenhouse gases in greenhouse theory.
Raman spectroscopy provides experimental validation with the detection of IR radiation absorption/ blocking capabilities of the non-greenhouse gases.
In other words, according to greenhouse theory, greenhouse gases are defined by their UNIQUE ability to ABSORB radiation. However, quantum mechanics predicts and Raman spectroscopy allegedly shows us that there is no fundamental difference in the way in which ALL gases in the atmosphere interact with radiation.
Wait, what?!
This is a big problem for greenhouse theory.
Conclusion
‘The entire paradigm of modern day Climate Change, and all the societal cost that comes with it, rests on the assumption that the greenhouse theory is ‘correct’, and therefore by extension on the observations first made by Tyndall in his famous 19th Century experiment.’
I have made a case in this article that there may have been a major misunderstanding as to the cause of Tyndall’s observations; that they were in fact the result of the thermoelectic properties of what became known as the ‘greenhouse gases’, as opposed to any unique radiation-absorbing properties, or greenhouse properties.
I have essentially described a ‘blind-spot’ in the measurement technique, one which would not fully reveal itself experimentally until more than a century later with the advancement of a new, more sophisticated spectroscopic technique.
There are those better versed in this area of science than I who may be able to make a strong argument against the case I make here. Nonetheless, I do maintain that it is an interesting counter-argument to arguably one of the most significant scientific experiments ever undertaken, and one that should be taken seriously.
And at the very least we should keep an open mind. The scientific method demands it of us. Especially when so much is at stake!
-T
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Note: This newsletter was influenced by a 2018 scientific paper I came across written by Blair MacDonald, an economics teacher and physics researcher based in Stockholm, Sweden. MacDonald’s paper is well worth a read and can be accessed here at the ResearchGate website.
Wikipedia does a good job of explaining the inner workings of thermopiles and the general principle of thermoelectric effect should you be interested to find out more.
The presence of a ‘dipole’ within a molecule determines whether it will be thermoelectric or not. A dipole exists when there is a separation of opposite electrical charges. Molecules that are symmetrical, i.e. have no dipole, while still able to emit IR radiation, will not cause a thermopile to generate an electrical force.
It is because of these thermoelectric properties of that IR camera lenses are typically made out of germanium instead of glass - germanium being a non-thermoelectric substance and therefore (and usefully!) ‘invisible’ to the thermopile within the camera.