<P> In contrast to astronomy , mechanics , and optics , which had been studied quantitatively since antiquity , the start of ongoing qualitative and quantitative research into electrical phenomena can marked with the publication of De Magnete by the English scientist William Gilbert in 1600 . In this book , there was a small section where Gilbert returned to the amber effect ( as he called it ) in addressing many of the earlier theories , and coined the New Latin word electrica ( from ἤλεκτρον ( ēlektron ) , the Greek word for amber ) . The Latin word was translated into English as electrics . Gilbert is also credited with the term electrical , while the term electricity came later , first attributed to Sir Thomas Browne in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica from 1646 . ( For more linguistic details see Etymology of electricity . ) Gilbert was followed in 1660 by Otto von Guericke , who invented what was probably the first electrostatic generator . Other European pioneers were Robert Boyle , who in 1675 stated that electric attraction and repulsion can act across a vacuum ; Stephen Gray , who in 1729 classified materials as conductors and insulators . In 1733 Charles François de Cisternay du Fay , inspired by Gray 's work , made a series of experiments ( reported in Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences ) , showing that more or less all substances could be ' electrified ' by rubbing , except for metals and fluids and proposed that electricity comes in two varieties that cancel each other , which he expressed in terms of a two - fluid theory . When glass was rubbed with silk , du Fay said that the glass was charged with vitreous electricity , and , when amber was rubbed with fur , the amber was charged with resinous electricity . Another important two - fluid theory from this time was proposed by Jean - Antoine Nollet ( 1745 ) . In 1839 , Michael Faraday showed that the apparent division between static electricity , current electricity , and bioelectricity was incorrect , and all were a consequence of the behavior of a single kind of electricity appearing in opposite polarities . It is arbitrary which polarity is called positive and which is called negative . Positive charge can be defined as the charge left on a glass rod after being rubbed with silk . </P>
<P> In contrast to astronomy , mechanics , and optics , which had been studied quantitatively since antiquity , the start of ongoing qualitative and quantitative research into electrical phenomena can marked with the publication of De Magnete by the English scientist William Gilbert in 1600 . In this book , there was a small section where Gilbert returned to the amber effect ( as he called it ) in addressing many of the earlier theories , and coined the New Latin word electrica ( from ἤλεκτρον ( ēlektron ) , the Greek word for amber ) . The Latin word was translated into English as electrics . Gilbert is also credited with the term electrical , while the term electricity came later , first attributed to Sir Thomas Browne in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica from 1646 . ( For more linguistic details see Etymology of electricity . ) Gilbert was followed in 1660 by Otto von Guericke , who invented what was probably the first electrostatic generator . Other European pioneers were Robert Boyle , who in 1675 stated that electric attraction and repulsion can act across a vacuum ; Stephen Gray , who in 1729 classified materials as conductors and insulators . In 1733 Charles François de Cisternay du Fay , inspired by Gray 's work , made a series of experiments ( reported in Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences ) , showing that more or less all substances could be ' electrified ' by rubbing , except for metals and fluids and proposed that electricity comes in two varieties that cancel each other , which he expressed in terms of a two - fluid theory . When glass was rubbed with silk , du Fay said that the glass was charged with vitreous electricity , and , when amber was rubbed with fur , the amber was charged with resinous electricity . Another important two - fluid theory from this time was proposed by Jean - Antoine Nollet ( 1745 ) . In 1839 , Michael Faraday showed that the apparent division between static electricity , current electricity , and bioelectricity was incorrect , and all were a consequence of the behavior of a single kind of electricity appearing in opposite polarities . It is arbitrary which polarity is called positive and which is called negative . Positive charge can be defined as the charge left on a glass rod after being rubbed with silk . </P>
who discovered positive and negative charges in atoms
who discovered positive and negative charges in atoms
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday