Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
He also suggested that the earth originated much earlier than the 4004 BC of Archbishop James Ussher. Basing his figures on the cooling rate of iron tested at his Laboratory le Petit Fontenet at Montbard, he calculated that the age of the earth was 75,000 years. Once again, his ideas were condemned by the Sorbonne, and again he issued a retraction to avoid further problems.