Electrification

Electrification, the production of one of the two opposite conditions of a body that by comparison with the condition of rubbed amber (Gk. elektron) are termed electrified. Electrification may be positive or negative, or, as was once the method of expressing them, vitreous or resinous: glass and resin being the favourite materials experimented upon by old philosophers to examine the opposite electrifications. [Electricity.]