# Static electricity history

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/static-electricity-history/418921>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 12, 2007, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/static-electricity-history/418921 "2007-09-12T16:18:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/static-electricity-history/418921/1 "2007-09-12T16:18:38Z")

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Are there any historical superstitions regarding static electricity? I imagine it would have been quite an ominous thing to people before the common knowledge of static discharge. Being shocked by a persons touch could possibly be construed as quite a scary thing. And yet, I’ve never heard of any reference to the phenomenon in the historical books or texts.

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**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/static-electricity-history/418921/2 "2007-09-12T16:53:33Z")

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Well, there’s lightning, of course; I’m pretty sure that shows up a lot in folklore and myths. And St. Elmo’s fire. But I don’t recall ever seeing references to small-scale, everyday static before the 17th century.

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/static-electricity-history/418921/3 "2007-09-12T16:59:11Z")

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The ancient Greeks were aware of the phenomenon; our word “electric” comes from a root word meaning “amber”, that being one of the better natural materials for building up a charge.

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**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/static-electricity-history/418921/4 "2007-09-12T17:09:17Z")

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I’d guess static affected people a lot less in the days before plastics and synthetic fibres. I can’t imagine you’d build up much of a charge scooting round stone floors in leather moccasins.