Comments on “The Effects of Gaseous Helium and Nitrogen on Thermopower Measurements: A Note of Concern for the Discrepancy of the Results Observed in High Temperature Superconductors”

Lumped thermal circuit analysis is employed to show that the pressure dependence of the thermopower reported in the above paper is due to the finite thermal conductance between the separate heated points where the differential temperature and thermoelectric potential were measured. A system which allows equivalent measurements at a single heated point is proposed leading to a pressure independent thermopower without requiring high vacuum.