Leclerc and Dalibard's Lightning Experiment, 1752
In 1750, Benjamin Franklin published a proposal for an experiment to determine if lightning was electricity. He proposed extending a conductor into a cloud that appeared to have the potential to become a thunderstorm. If electricity existed in the cloud, the conductor could be used to extract it. Thomas-Fran̤ois Dalibard (1709-1778) and Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, translated Franklin's proposal into French and in May 1752 they performed an experiment using a 40 foot tall metal rod at Marly-la-Ville. It is said that Dalibard used wine bottles to ground the pole, and he successfully extracted electricity from a low cloud. It is not known whether Franklin ever performed his proposed experiment. Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (September 7, 1707 - April 16, 1788), was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopedic author. He epitomizes the revolutionary changes that the Enlightenment brought to the study of nature.
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