►Historically, the credit of discovery of frictional electricity goes to Thales of Miletus, Greece around 600 BC .
►The name electricity is coined from the Greek word 'elektron' meaning amber.
►Many such pairs of materials were known which, on rubbing could attract light objects like straw, pith balls and bits of papers.
►We can explain it with an activity also : Cut out long thin strips of white paper and lightly iron them.
►Take them near a TV screen or computer monitor. You will see that the strips get attracted to the screen. In fact they remain stuck to the screen for a while.