A hard red, brown, or yellow translucent fossil resin of coniferous trees: In about 600 B.C., the Greek philosopher Thales rubbed amber with silk, causing it to attract dust and feathers.

This static electricity was believed to be a unique property of amber until the sixteenth century, when English scientist William Gilbert demonstrated that it was characteristic of numerous materials.

He called it "electrification", after elektron, the Greek word for amber.