We all know that there are two types of electric charge. We label them as '+' and '-'. One may wonder why these charges have been labelled so? Historical evidences give no solid reason for this naming practice.
A long time ago people found that certain materials when rubbed with cloth or fur were able to pick up (attract) small objects(like a piece of paper). A piece of ebonite was said to be charged when rubbed with fur. Similarly, a glass was said to be charged when rubbed with silk. But the charge on ebonite was not similar to the charge on glass, i.e. there were two kinds of 'charge' and so for the convenience of description and identification they were labelled '-' and '+',respectively by someone or by a group of some people. '-' and '+' have no mathematical significance nor any magical reason for being labelled like that. Had they named '+' charge as '-' and '-' charge as '+', that would not have had any significant impact on the description of phenomena of electricity. Thus, electron is negatively charged because it has the same electrical properties as a piece of ebonite when rubbed with fur and proton is positively charged because of its electrical behaviour similar to the glass rubbed with silk. So let us recollect Shakespeare : What's in a name ? An electron would behave electrically similarly if it were named 'proton'!!!
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