Buys Ballot, Christoph Hendrik Didericus

Born Oct. 10, 1817, in Kloetinge; died Feb. 3, 1890, in Utrecht. Dutch meteorologist.

Beginning in 1854, Buys Ballot was director of the Meteorological Institute in Utrecht. In 1854 he drew up synoptic wind charts. In 1857 he empirically established the law of winds, according to which the wind in the northern hemisphere inclines to the right and the wind in the southern hemisphere to the left, from a pressure gradient of approximately 60°. Beginning in 1870, Buys Ballot was a professor at the University of Utrecht.