ABSTRACT
William Gilbert, who experimented with magnetism and electricity in the 1600s, was the first to apply the term ‘‘electric’’ (Greek electron, ‘‘amber’’) to the force realized upon rubbing certain substances together. He called the force between the two objects charged by friction ‘‘electric.’’ Gilbert also identified the difference between magnetism and electricity. In 1729, Stephen Gray discovered the electrical conductor. Charles Dufay first expressed the idea of a repulsive electric force in 1733.
