The type of electricity that discharges from a solid material after it has been rubbed with another material is known as static electricity. One of the most common methods of demonstrating static electricity is by simply combing your hair. After it has passed through dry hair, a comb acquires the ability to attract small pieces of paper and similar objects to its surface. Two types of charges exist; no electrical phenomena are known that suggest the existence of more than these two types. Benjamin Franklin is responsible for the invention that an electrical charge is negative when it has been generated by rubber rubbed with fur, while the charge is positive when it has been generated from glass rubbed with silk. A charge generated in any other fashion can then be compared to these two results.
The force of attraction or the force of repulsion, of one type of charge for another one is called an electrostatic or coulombic force. Charles Coulomb first reported the results of such observations as a statement that has become known as Coulomb's law: Like charges repel unlike charges attract.