Static electricity from rubbed amber (Thales of Miletus)
Electrización del ámbar por frotamiento (Tales de Mileto)
- Date
- c. 600 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- Miletus, Ionia, Turkey
- Credited to
- Thales of Miletus (by tradition)
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
The observation that rubbed amber attracts light bodies, attributed to Thales of Miletus. The Greek word for amber, elektron, gave us the word 'electricity'.
Thales left no writings: the report comes from Aristotle (De anima) and Diogenes Laertius, centuries later. It is a traditional attribution, not a contemporary source.
What it led to
- first electrical phenomenon recorded in the Western tradition
- etymological origin of 'electricity' (Gilbert, 1600)
- starting point of electrostatics