Electrostatic Telegraphy—1753–1816 [Scanning our Past]

After being rubbed against cotton or wool, amber acquires a static electric charge and attracts lightweight objects such as pieces of dried grass or dried leaves (Fig. 1). Amber has been prized for its beauty since antiquity; it was gathered at the shores of the Baltic Sea as far back as 10 000 BC [1]. The word electric has its origin in ηλεκτρo (ilektro), a Greek word for amber. It has been widely asserted that Thales of Miletus was the first to notice that amber attracts some types of light objects. Thales, who is believed to have lived from about 640-610 BC to about 548-545 BC, left nothing in writing and his alleged existence was first announced by Diogenes Laërtius about nine centuries after Thales's era [2]. Amber jewelry and ornaments existed long before Thales's period [3], [4]. It is likely that people who handled amber, not philosophers, first observed that leaves, straws, and other objects cling to amber.