His most famous illustration was an electric shock that passed through 180 of King Louis XV's Royal Guards. <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/417286/Abbe-Jean-Antoine-NolletThales">http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/417286/Abbe-Jean-Antoine-NolletThales</a> of Miletos made a series of observations on static electricity around 600 BC, from which he believed that friction rendered amber magnetic, in contrast to minerals such as magnetite, which needed no rubbing.