Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
Dalibard, who at the suggestion of Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, translated Franklin's "Experiments and Observations on Electricity" into French, performed Franklin's proposed experiment using a 40-foot-tall metal rod at Marly-la-Ville on 10 May 1752. 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.