William Gilbert

William Gilbert was born on Mat 24 1544  he was born in Londan England, he is accepted as one of the founders of the electrical age,  the unit of magnetomotive force and also magnetic potential is named after him.  He gained a masters in Cambridge in 1569.  From his magentic studies he came to the conclusion that the earth's center was a large magnet consisting of iron which is the which was the reason that his magnet pointed north.

William Gilbert [1].

He is known as the first person too coin the phrase "electricity. He recognized that the friction created when an object rubs against another as effluvium.
The following is an extract that is translated from the  his book De Magnete.

The electric effluvia differ much from air, and as air is the earth's effluvium, so electric bodies have their own distinctive effluvia; and each peculiar effluvium has its own individual power of leading to union, its own movement to its origin, to its fount, and to the body emitting the effluvium.

—De Magnete, English translation by Paul Fleury Mottelay, 1893 

William Gilbert was an observer more so than an inventor he noticed that the water in the air effected this effluvia. Using two magnets Gilbert knew that they would either attract  or repel.  He observed that iron would always be attracted to the magnet.  Iron then became a permanent magnet in this case when it was put close to the magnet this is because magnetic poles have matched pairs, the  other end of the bar becomes an S pole.

Test of magnets and iron [2]

Gilbert was right about temporary  magnetism when he attempted an original experiment.  With two strings strings, he placed two  iron bars that were above a  terrella, and came to the conclusion that they repelled each other. The terrella caused the iron bars both became a temporary magnet of which were the same polarities, because of this both the magnets repelled each other.

Gilbert also determined that static and magnetic properties were different, that if an insulator rubs off an insulator that it becomes statically charged ie if two nylon bars are rubbed against each other they repel each other.  Two objects with an opposite charge will attract each other.  He suggested that a perfectly spherical lodestone when pointing  in the direction of both the poles the lodestone would begin too spin.  By making this statement he was pointing out that the earth was not at the center of the universe.