Stephen Gray was an English astronomer who made significant contributions to science. These include his experiments with conduction, insulation, and electrostatic induction.
One of his experiments was done using a glass tube. Gray observed that when the glass was rubbed with a dry hand or dry paper, it obtained electric charge. As a result, it attracted a feather to the glass, as well as the cork with which it was closed. The cork was in fact, used to keep the dust out when not in use.
From the experiment, Gray concluded that the ‘attractive virtue’ passed from the tube to the cork.
To clear his doubts, Gray proceeded with a similar experiment. This time, he attached an ivory ball to a piece of wood, and inserted the other end of the wood into the cork. Once it was done, he confirmed that attraction and repulsion passed to the ball, that too stronger than that on the cork.
Gray observed that substances like silk do not conduct electricity. And that Earth was somehow responsible for conducting electric charge away from the body.
For his electrical experiments, Stephen Gray received the first Copley Medal instituted by the Royal Society, in 1731. However most of his works went unacknowledged and he died as a poor man.