I found this in an old publication. I am curious how this works as I have never seen anything like this before. Thanks!

 

Nickel-silver thermocouples and hot-carrier diodes.
According to this site, Ag has a Seebeck coefficient of 1.51 μV/K and Ni has - 19.5μV/K.
So expect about 21μV/K for a single Ag-Ni thermocouple junction.
A hot-carrier diode (better known as a Schottky diode) is presumably used here for its low forward conduction voltage.
But let's say that its forward conduction voltage is 300mV. That's 14,000 deg K according to my calculations!
Perhaps they use a lot of thermocouple junctions in series?
Probably why this idea never caught on! Or is my math or understanding completely wrong?

 

What puzzles me is the four thermocouple assemblies are not hooked to anything. Each assembly appears to be isolated from the others, with no visible connection(s). Also, the order they are stacked makes no sense to me at all.