Around 1600, William Gilbert, an English physician and natural philosopher, invented the versorium, which is regarded as the first electroscope. The device was made to detect the presence of static electric charges. Gilbert studied the effects produced when materials such as amber were rubbed. He observed that a charged object could attract a light metal needle. This observation gave him a way to study static electricity through an instrument. Gilbert also studied magnetism and concluded that Earth itself acts like a giant magnet. His 1600 work, De Magnete, brought together experiments on magnetism and electricity and influenced later scientific study.
