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Charles François de Cisternay du Fay

Charles François de Cisternay du Fay (14 September 1698 – 16 July 1739) was a French chemist and superintendent of the Jardin du Roi. He discovered that some charged items would repel while some would attract and posited the existence of two types of electricity and named them "vitreous" and "resinous" (in fact he had discovered positive and negative charge, respectively) He noted the difference between conductors and insulators, calling them 'electrics' and 'non-electrics' for their ability to produce contact electrification. He also discovered that alike-charged objects would repel each other and that unlike-charged objects attract.

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Charles François de Cisternay du Fay

Name
Charles François de Cisternay du Fay
Born
14 September 1698
Birthplace
Paris
Died
16 July 1739
Field
chemistry
Known for
electric charge
Nationality
France
Occupation
chemist · physicist · writer
Honours
Fellow of the Royal Society
Languages
French

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Charles François de Cisternay du Fay (14 September 1698 – 16 July 1739) was a French chemist and superintendent of the Jardin du Roi. He discovered that some charged items would repel while some would attract and posited the existence of two types of electricity and named them "vitreous" and "resinous" (in fact he had discovered positive and negative charge, respectively) He noted the difference between conductors and insulators, calling them 'electrics' and 'non-electrics' for their ability to produce contact electrification. He also discovered that alike-charged objects would repel each other and that unlike-charged objects attract.

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wikidata · Q345455 · wikipedia · Charles François de Cisternay du Fay

In this article

  1. 01Biography
  2. 02Writing and publications
  3. 03Archives and collections
  4. 04Notes, references and evidence

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