In 1759, the Scottish philosopher and former diplomat Robert Symmer proposed his two-fluid theory of electricity in a paper read before the Royal Society in London. Symmer observed that when he stroked his stockings with his hands, both the stockings and his hands became electrified in opposite ways, leading him to argue that two distinct electrical fluids existed rather than Franklin's single fluid. Though ultimately superseded, Symmer's theory was widely debated in London scientific circles and influenced electrical theory for decades before the modern understanding of positive and negative charge emerged.

Symmer's delightfully eccentric paper, which began with observations about his silk and woolen stockings, exemplified the informal, anecdotal style of much eighteenth-century scientific writing that blurred the boundary between scientific observation and personal essay. His attention to the electrical properties of everyday clothing and domestic objects brought electricity into the realm of domestic literature and the essay tradition, anticipating the Romantic poets' interest in finding the extraordinary within the ordinary. The stocking anecdote itself became a minor literary curiosity, cited in essays and periodicals as an example of how scientific discovery could emerge from mundane experience.