The first documented experiments with "electricity" were experiments on the electrification of amber by the friction of Thales from Miletus in the 600s BC. And then mankind seemed to have lost interest in the study of this phenomenon, and until the seventeenth century, nowhere is such a "disgrace" mentioned in writing.
"Amber" (ancient Greek ἤλεκτρον).
Then William Guilbert in 1600 publishes this scientific work "De magnete, magneticisque corporibus etc." and introduces the word electric into the concept of people, i.e. "Amber" - because of the experiments with the same amber.
But the next researcher, burgomaster of Magdeburg (modern - Hamburg), Otto von Guericke, is of particular interest to the NM channel because it was he who designed the first "documented" electric machine - an electrostatic generator in which electricity was produced using friction.
The "generator" device consisted of a large ball made of sulfur (for this, it was melted and poured into an empty ball-shaped glass vessel, which was then broken). The sulfur ball was pierced by the axis around which it was spun. When rubbed against a dry hand, the ball became electrified, moreover, more than Gilbert's amber.
This machine helped von Guericke to discover, in addition to the already well-known electric attraction, also electric repulsion: the fluff was first attracted to the ball, and when it touched it, it was repelled. Also, the researcher conducted experiments with a linen thread and proved that the state of electrification of the ball can be transmitted along it by one cubit.
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Engraving from 1750, with von Guericke's device.
In addition to all this, he was the first to observe the light glow of a rubbed ball in the dark and hear faint discharges of sparks, although he was unable, however, to explain these phenomena. The researcher published all the results obtained in the book "Experimenta nova" in 1672. But no one knows exactly what happened to his unique machine. In 1815, the "Guericke machine" seemed to be in the Braunschweig Polytechnic School. Of course, it is impossible to prove for sure that it was she.