Thomas-François Dalibard (born in

Crannes-en-Champagne Crannes-en-Champagne is a commune in the Sarthe department in the Pays de la Loire region in north-western France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in 1709, died in 1778) was a French physicist who performed the first lightning rod experiment. He was married to the novelist and playwright Françoise-Thérèse Aumerle de Saint-Phalier.

Relationship with Benjamin Franklin

He first met

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts Scientific method, scientific research to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, ...

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

in 1767 during one of Franklin's visits to

and it is said that they became friends. In 1750,

published a proposal for an experiment to determine if

lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...

was

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

. He proposed extending a conductor into a cloud that appeared to have the potential to become a

thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are someti ...

. If electricity existed in the cloud, the conductor could be used to extract it.

Experiments with electricity

Dalibard, who at the suggestion of

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (; 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopédiste. His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including two prominent Fr ...

, 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 Marly-la-Ville () is a commune in the Val-d'Oise department in Île-de-France in northern France, 25 km north of Paris. History Thomas-François Dalibard lived at 15 rue du Colonel Fabien, a classical eighteenth-century mansion. He was a n ...

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.

Publications

Dalibard was the author of ''Florae Parisiensis Prodromus, ou catalogue des plantes qui naissent dans les environs de Paris'' (Florae Parisiensis Prodromus, or catalog of plants native to the area around Paris) (Paris, 1749).

Relationship with Benjamin Franklin

Experiments with electricity

Publications

References

Further reading