Daryl
I'm sure you remember Terry Hindman. I believe that he had someone douse his cabin property to determine where to drill his well.
There is also an underground utility locator in the Sacramento area who I witnessed locating waterpipes in the road using nothing but dousing rods. He was pretty accurate - no less so than someone using an electronic pipe locator, in that case at least.
Since I brought up Terry, have you and Mary kept in touch with him and Beth? if so, I'd like to get his contact info.
Don't give up
Instead take an opportunity to witness someone who can do it. I don't know the science behind it other than it has something to do with magnetic fields. Very similar to electronic pipe locators or dip needles. If you've ever seen a dip needle work, it's not much of a jump to accept that two metal rods properly held in the right hands would also work.
But then most people don't understand the science behind a little palm sized electronic gizmo that can tell you where you are on the face of the earth within a couple of meters, but they still believe it works. it's just a matter of demonstration.
I too was skeptical, but it really does work. The funny thing is that I don't only find lines when I do it, I find pretty much anything metal also. I have found watches, knives, forks, spoons, etc. But every time the rods crossed something was there. It may have been because I was using two welding rods bent into 90° angles with all of the flux knocked off.
The cynical question is, if you stopped that many places where the rods did NOT cross, would you also find spoons and things?
It works, I know that. I can walk up and down any street and find water services, sewer services etc without using metal rods. I can tell where gas services are, phone lines also, but its called the power of observation.
People that say they have seen it work are basing these statements on something that isn't proven. I can say "I don't were my seat belt in my car, I haven't been killed in a car accident, there fore not wearing my seatbelt is the safest thing to do". We all know this isn't true, but I'm living proof that it does work, but that doesn't make it so.
Magic 8-Ball
> Several years ago I attended a Surveyor's Conference in Seattle (conference was Associated with WestFed). A Surveyor from Hawaii gave a class on dousing. I will be in charge of our New Mexico Conference in 2013. I'd like to contact this gentleman to see if he'd be interested in teaching this class in the Land of Enchantment. If anybody knows who I'm referring to, I'd appreciate his contact information.
>
> Thank you!
>
> Larry
If you can't locate this gentleman, I would be more than happy to demonstrate the powers of a Magic 8-Ball at your New Mexico Conference. I only ask for airfare, transfers, and hotel accomodations for four in return.
😉
Witching
For any that doubt dowsing or witching, you need an open mind. It does work. It simply does. Perhaps not 100%, but it does.
Two stories.
The first happened a couple years ago. We were fixing an old sprinkler system. Had no idea where the water lines ran (they were 60-100 years old). The water line was plugged up with rust scale somewhere. Dad went over to the fence and made a pair of wire rods...spent 10 minutes making kick marks in the lawn. Finally he said "dig here, there will be an elbow joint, that's where it is plugged up". My brother and I dug a 6" diameter hole about 8" deep and hit an elbow in the exact center of the hole. And it was plugged up with rust...a little banging with a hammer fixed it.
Second story goes back to the mid 70's. Dad surveyed a large parcel up a remote gulch. The valley in the bottom was probably 1/2 mile wide at the most. A couple years later someone bought one of the lots in the bottom of the valley and asked my Dad to witch him a well. He spent a half a day running around the parcel, then finally decided on a location. He pounded a lath in and went to show the owner. Once the owner saw the location, he got a weird look on his face. He asked how my Dad decided that was the best location, he brought out his rods and showed him how he witched. Once the guy was satisfied that he was not cheating, he walked over to a small rock about 3 feet away and turned it over, under the rock was a small wooden peg pounded into the ground with a red rag tied around it. Turns out when the guy bought the property, he was shown the wooden peg and was told that the old lady from the original homestead, witched that location out using willow sticks. This was in the 1930's. Apparently she was known to be a good witcher, so it was worth preserving for all those years. They drilled a well and got 20 gallons per minute which is very good for this area.
Weird story but true.
Witching
Ok, I'm game. I have a pool, that should be enough water, right? I'll turn the pump on so it has some flow. I also have a sprinkler system in the yard. I have no idea where the lines are, so that would be a good test too. Do I need to run the sprinklers, or should it work with just the water in the lines? I'm thinking the rods should fit into a sleeve in a board so I can't influence their rotation. Any other suggestions?
Witching
Personally, I think the reason why it appears to work sometimes is that people pick up visual clues as to where a good place for a waterline would be, and subconsciously make the wires move themselves.
At a past job, I used to work closely with a subsurface utility excavation crew. We ran into a lot of "dowsers" in that line of work. I recall arriving at a site once where a guy on a directional boring crew had “dowsed” the site before we arrived. We scanned the site with GPR, hooked up where we could with a metrotech, and used vacuum excavation to expose the crossings. I can tell you, he was 100% wrong on everything he had marked, yet still insisted there was “something” at all his markings, and when he hit them, he'd hold us responsible. Never heard from him again ...
Witching
Witching
All you can do is have an open mind. You do have to have an idea what your looking for.