dowsing rods

[Nosmo King]

Anybody here ever use a dowsing rod or similar device to locate trenches and buried pipes?

Were they effective and somewhat accurate?

 

[noose4]

Dowsing rods dont work they are an old time con like rain makers and miracle cure all tonics.

 

[RodISHI]

Rod had me try using one made out of copper out back when we were trying to figure out where the water lines ran and where I wanted to put in leech lines to my pond because we have so many natural springs here. It worked. Amazed me.

 

[xotoxi]

Anybody here ever use a dowsing rod or similar device to locate trenches and buried pipes?

Were they effective and somewhat accurate?

Hold on.

Let me check with my Ouija board and I'll get back to you...

 

[Oddball]

Dowsing rods dont work they are an old time con like rain makers and miracle cure all tonics.

....and gubmint programs that "create jobs".

 

[American Horse]

Anybody here ever use a dowsing rod or similar device to locate trenches and buried pipes?

Were they effective and somewhat accurate?

I've seen them work very reliably by those with the skill.
Almost no water water line laterals (the small lines running from the mains to individual houses, usually of plastic) are buried with locating wires. Larger plastic mains may or may not be plastic. Also the larger lines are located in easements for which there is a public record, or platted, but the location inside an easement about 10-feet wide is left up to the contractor who buries them and is not specified or predetermined.

The field people from our local water company, when called by the underground location company (Holy Moly) locate plastic laterals reliably, and paint mark them on the ground. Of course they can open the meter pit and see in which direction the line intially takes, but once a line leaves the meter pit it can wander to any entry point in the foundation of the destination house.

These guys - there are two who do it for the local company - don't get any unusual bonus or monetary benefit for doing this; to the contrary if they are wrong too often they'd lose their jobs. That's because once the line is located and paint marked or flagged by them, excavators rely on them and too many cut lines causes expensive repairs. Locating lines is only a small part of their regular duties which include water main repairs and maintenance, etc.

The people who I have seen do it use two pieces of wire about 18-inches long each bent at a ninety degree angle, with about a 6-inch leg and a 12-leg. Holding the two wires with the 6" leg as balanced and frictionless as possible in their hands, and pointing down, so that they are level and parallel to each other in front of them. Then they walk around in the area the line is expected to be found in. When they pass directly over the line, the two parallel legs extended in front of them move toward each other and cross without touching. That is the technique I've seen multiples of times.

 

[Mr. H.]

My uncle found a 10 million barrel oilfield using a pendulum. Dowsing works. There are different methods.

 

[Terry]

When I had a large section of my backyard cleared of over 100 pine tree's the guy asked me where my waterline was that went from my BRICK well house to my house. I told him I think they run here...he got to coat hangers and bent them. He walked along and found them. I watched and was amazed. Those hangers criss-crossed themselves. He was on the spot of where the lines were because a neighbor stopped by to see how things were going and I asked if he knew since he was a water/well guy and lived here all his life. He knew exactly where the line was and sprayed painted the line. Exactly where those hangers crossed!

 

[Nosmo King]

I tried the coat hanger method last evening. It worked! And even better when I used two old bottles as ferrules for the rods to rest in without much friction and no hand contact.

I tried a test, as I am apt to do with anything new. I knew exactly where an overflow pipe was buried leading to a small pond. I could see the pipe as it stubbed into the pond and crossed the line perpendicularly to the buried pipe. Those coat hangers actually criss crossed with no prompting from me!

 

[uscitizen]

I use a Tricorder. But drowsing rods do work.

 

[AllieBaba]

I've known quite a few people who have located springs and water sources using dousing rods. I'm inclined to think that they work, if in the hands of a particularly intuitive person.

I think I could probably use them, but I'm super good at sniffing out water sources underground...so long as it isn't TOO far down.

 

[Nosmo King]

What's the deal with the Y shaped branch technique? I've never seen that!

 

[uscitizen]

Peach tree branches work the best.

 

[Nosmo King]

Peach tree branches work the best.

Cmon! Really? I'm right at the point I might actually believe you!

I might have tried pine as it is not only readily available, but a soft wood and easy to bend.

If in your reply you said "Try Cabbage Palm or Eastern White Cedar!" I'd know my leg is being pulled!

 

[uscitizen]

Peach tree branches work the best.

Cmon! Really? I'm right at the point I might actually believe you!

I might have tried pine as it is not only readily available, but a soft wood and easy to bend.

If in your reply you said "Try Cabbage Palm or Eastern White Cedar!" I'd know my leg is being pulled!

It actually works for some people. I do not know how, only that it does.

A gift from God I suppose since we cannot explain it?

 

[American Horse]

It actually works for some people. I do not know how, only that it does.

A gift from God I suppose since we cannot explain it?

It's the easiest thing in the world to say that it's a sham or superstition; especially by calling it "water witching" a pejorative term. I was an affirmed skeptic, but I've seen it done enough for practical purposes to be a much greater doubter of being skeptical about it than its being a fact.

The first compasses must have seemed to be "A gift from God...."

Rather than calling it a superstition, I'd think the truly scientific and open minded person would try to explain it in scientific terms. Could it be that a water line or more to the point a 'line of water' might cause an energy discontinuity in the soil with some sort of energy field that we aren't now aware of?

People do give off energy and have their own energy fields. Maybe these two fields of energy interact? My wife has an electric calculator on her office desk. When she is especially "stressed" and approaches that calculator within close range it clatters. No other person has an equivalent effect on it.

 

[uscitizen]

Is your wife a "Toaster" ?

 

[California Girl]

Anybody here ever use a dowsing rod or similar device to locate trenches and buried pipes?

Were they effective and somewhat accurate?

I have used them in ghosthunting.

 

[Mr. H.]

I'm reading this book. It's very interesting.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Water-Witching-U-S-A-Evon-Vogt/dp/0226862984/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1335150615&sr=8-2]Amazon.com: Water Witching U.S.A. (9780226862989): Evon Z. Vogt, Ray Hyman: Books[/ame]


Modern-day dowsing was brought here from Europe where it was practiced in Germany for finding ores and minerals. England employed the Krauts to develop their mining industry. And we all know where the British sailed to...

From the book:

As we might expect, a practice with such a long history as witching carries with it an elaborae folklore consisting of "explanations" of how it works and an equally impressive set of rationalizations to account for failures. While Europeans have organizations and journals, write books with quasi-scientific theories, and have a strong predilection to "explain" their divining practice, the American diviner takes a more pragmatic attitude.

He is interested in the practical consequences. He wants water, not theory. And so we find that many Americans are content to justify water witching with little more than the statement "It works".

 

[geauxtohell]

Anybody here ever use a dowsing rod or similar device to locate trenches and buried pipes?

Were they effective and somewhat accurate?

Yeah. It works. Don't ask me how, but it works.