Conservation of Electric Charge and the Process of Charging

Charging is transfer, not creation. Friction moves electrons between two neutral objects and leaves them oppositely charged; contact shares charge between conductors and leaves them with the same sign; induction never touches the charged object at all and, with a grounding step, leaves the conductor with the sign opposite to it. In every case the total charge of the isolated system before equals the total after. Whether the charge can move once delivered is a property of the material: a conductor redistributes it over the outer surface, an insulator holds it in the patch where it landed.

Two errors run through the whole topic. The first is describing a process as making charge: both objects coming out negative from a neutral start, or a grounded conductor having its charge destroyed rather than conducted away. Total the charge before and after and the story either balances or it is wrong. The second is letting charge flow across an insulator, which turns a rubbed patch on a plastic rod into a uniform coating, or lets a single grounded touch neutralize the whole rod. Naming the material first settles both.