in greek age, thales found static electricity when he was cleaning his amber. but at that time, they did not pay attention to this and research it. they just knew that rubbing something made a pulling force. earnest research into static electricity was started in the 17th century, when otto von guericke made the first friction generator. and in the 18th century, coulomb started research into a fixed quantity of static electricity. benjamin franklin associated static electricity with storms. in 1832 michael faraday published the results of his experiment on the identity of electricity. this report proved that the electricity made by using a magnet, voltaic electricity produced by a battery, and static electricity are all the same. since faraday's result, the history of static electricity can be thought as the study of electricity in general.