Final answer:
The law of conservation of electrical charge, stating that charge cannot be created or destroyed, was developed from the collective work of 18th-century scientists and does not credit a single individual with its discovery. Charles Coulomb, through his formulation of Coulomb's law, played a pivotal role in understanding electrostatic forces that underpin the conservation of charge.
Step-by-step explanation:
The law of conservation of electrical charge is a fundamental principle in physics that asserts that electrical charge cannot be created or destroyed within an isolated system. The groundwork for this law, along with the principles underlying electrostatic forces, was largely developed during the late 18th century. While the specific individual who first enunciated the conservation of charge is not highlighted, the development of these concepts was refined through the work of various scientists of the era.
One key figure in this domain was the French physicist Charles Coulomb, who is well-known for publishing the mathematical expression known as Coulomb's law. Although Coulomb's law doesn't directly state the conservation of charge, it is a fundamental piece in the puzzle that brought us to that understanding, describing the force between points charges with a mathematical formula.
The law of conservation of charge gained further support in the 20th century when experiments and theoretical arguments confirmed its validity, even when protons and electrons were created or destroyed. Together with Coulomb's Law and the progression of knowledge about static electricity and charge, conservation of charge became a foundational concept in physics.