Charles-François de Cisternay du Fay was born in France in 1698 and started his career in the French Army before becoming a chemist in the Academie Française in 1732. He discovered that there are two types of electricity - vitreous (positive charge) and resinous (negative charge) - and that objects with the same charge repel while objects with opposite charges attract. He died of constipation in 1739.
2. C. F. Du Fay
Charles-François de Cisternay du Fay was born in
France in 1698.
He was a Parisian by birth. He started his career in
the French Army, rising to the rank or captain.
He then left to become a chemist in the Academie
Française and in 1732 became superintendent of
the Jardin du Roi. He was also one of the first to
include an electroscope in his research.
He died of constipation on Thursday, July 5, 1739.
3. He discovered the two
C types of electricity:
O vitreous and resinous
N (positive and negative
T charge).
R He noted the difference
I between 'electrics' and
'non-electrics’, now
B known as conductors and
U insulators.
T He discovered that alike-
I charged objects would
O repel each other and that
N unlike-charged objects
attract.
4. Discovery: The two types of electricity
In December 1733, he noticed
that objects that had been
rubbed attracted and repelled
each other. He proposed two
different kinds of electricity to Amber(above);Gem(below)
explain this phenomenon.
‘Vitreous’ (Latin meaning
glass) is produced when glass
or gems were rubbed.
‘Resinous’ electricity (Latin
meaning resin) is obtained by
rubbing amber, silk, or paper.
5. Types of Charges
• He argued that objects with
different kinds of electricity
attract each other, whereas
those with the same kind of
electricity repel.
6. Values we want to learn from Du Fay
• The values we
would like to learn
from Du Fay are his
patience, resilience
and passion for
learning.
7. Reflection
• From this assignment, we have learnt and
understood the following:
– A successful discovery can only be achieved with
the help of many scientists.
– We should not be afraid to try out new things.
– It may take many years for discoveries of
something to be fully completed.
8. Reflection
Throughout the assignment, we
faced many problems such as not
being able to find the necessary
details on the Net and not being
able to decide on what to put
into our slides. We overcame
them by replacing the insufficient
points with other ones and taking
a few moments to organize our
slides.
