Electrostatic discharge (ESD) phenomena have been known to mankind since the Greek
Empire when Thales of Miletus, one of the Seven Sages of Greece, noticed the attraction of
strands of hay to amber, leading to the coining of the word “electron.” Electrical discharge
and the guiding of electrical discharge (e.g., lightning) was of interest to Benjamin Franklin
in the 1700s, with the invention of the lightning rod. The lightning rod was mankind’s first
effort to guide the electrical discharge current of a lightning strike in a direction that would
not harm structures.
