dowsing
Mr Whippy - 7/7/08 at 07:26 AM
daft as a banana or not?
funny thing, spent about 2 hours hacking the back of the site to bits with the digger trying to find a water main, after nearing Australia I gave up
till a friend suggests dowsing claiming it works well, what a numpty 
so off he goes and comes back two of my arc welding rods, god I nearly died laughing...
then after walking around a bit proclaims he's found it about 4m further forward from where I am and marks it with a stone. ok then just to prove
your a twit I start digging, b%gger! he's spot on and I mean spot on, the pipes 2m down by the way.
had a go myself, no comment, way to freaky for my liking 
[Edited on 7/7/08 by Mr Whippy]
Humbug - 7/7/08 at 07:28 AM
At the moment I am able to locate water just by looking out of the window
David Jenkins - 7/7/08 at 07:56 AM
I have done a bit of dowsing with some success, but never on anything critical or important.
I don't have the bottle to walk up and down with a couple of bent wires, looking like a total prat! I certainly wouldn't invest any money
or time based on my results...
Benzine - 7/7/08 at 07:58 AM
You got lucky tbh. In controlled tests dowsing is proven to be total rubbish
Mr Whippy - 7/7/08 at 08:10 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Benzine
You got lucky tbh. In controlled tests dowsing is proven to be total rubbish
hmm I tried it too...
I can tell when I move a metal rod in my hands and when it moves itself, can't say I like it one bit but I'd say it works and works well.
simoto - 7/7/08 at 08:15 AM
Have to disagree there, Use to use my skill in place of holiday detectors on big gas pipelines back in the day.
Quite a few folks can detect the 36" lines steel quite easilly but only a small number can find the smaller bore drains either side(and therefore
water)
Rods dont have to be made of anything specific i have used metal and plastic with equal success, never even tried Birch.
Hand on heart, it really does work well if you can do it. And it is spooky too
Benzine - 7/7/08 at 08:17 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy
I can tell when I move a metal rod in my hands and when it moves itself, can't say I like it one bit but I'd say it works and works well.
That's what people say that have been doing it their whole life and swear by it say. In controlled tests, however, it's proven to be a pile
of steaming horse manure
A graph of results from almost 1000 dowsing tests:
A correct set of results would be a straight line from the bottom left of the graph to the top right
[Edited on 7/7/08 by Benzine]
theconrodkid - 7/7/08 at 08:40 AM
ive used it amid howls of laughter from on-lookers and i marked the route of the pipe we were looking for,i was right and they bought the bacon
rolls
Peteff - 7/7/08 at 08:41 AM
My mate tried dowsing to find a drain at the back of his house. After three test holes he gave up. I walked two hundred yards and found a manhole
cover and deduced that some idiot had built a garage and laid a patio over his drain. Logic and maps are much more reliable.
simoto - 7/7/08 at 08:46 AM
mmm, hardly see how an accurate correlation could be made of two sticks swinging freely in free air but........
Trust those who have seen, it works well and is regularly used in some industries as a back up when modern equipment use is restricted etc. Pipelines
are one example.
Mr Whippy - 7/7/08 at 08:56 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Benzine
quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy
I can tell when I move a metal rod in my hands and when it moves itself, can't say I like it one bit but I'd say it works and works well.
That's what people say that have been doing it their whole life and swear by it say. In controlled tests, however, it's proven to be a pile
of steaming horse manure
A graph of results from almost 1000 dowsing tests:
A correct set of results would be a straight line from the bottom left of the graph to the top right
[Edited on 7/7/08 by Benzine]
It’s a fair point, though if it worked and I’m not saying definitely that it does, it is so odd and not fitting in with what is currently understood
that the testers would have to be very careful not to affect it during the actual tests. From what I have seen the rods do turn apart all by
themselves, I have not a clue why that would happen and can’t think of a mechanism that would do it, doubters would obviously point out that all you
have to do is tilt your hands but that only cons observers, not the person dowsing. I put both hands together so they could not tilt and they still
moved apart (it isn’t subtle either, they swing very fast or slow depending on how quickly you are moving forward and over the same spot repeatably
(perfect for a scientific study ). If some one was to disprove it as rubbish they would reasonably have to explain why the rods move other than
simply not bothering to find out and stating it’s a trick, con or swamp gas. It’s not exactly difficult to do, I think most people can find two bit of
metal rod.
simoto - 7/7/08 at 09:02 AM
Oh get off the fence whippy man!
You have obviously seen it happen. When they move in your hands you know its not rubbish, it is as i say spooky. I mean what else can you do that 75%
of the others cant eh?
Mr Whippy - 7/7/08 at 09:36 AM
quote:
Originally posted by simoto
Oh get off the fence whippy man!
You have obviously seen it happen. When they move in your hands you know its not rubbish, it is as i say spooky. I mean what else can you do that 75%
of the others cant eh?
yes I've seen it but would rather know why it happens or would that spoil the magic?
Years ago my boss who was a damn good engineer floored me when he admitted that he dowsed for pipes and the like for a farmer. At the time I scoffed
and mocked him and could not fathom how an engineer could be so easily fooled into believing such ridiculous hocus-pocus nonsense.
Mr Whippy - 7/7/08 at 09:51 AM
It’s also worth pointing out that the pipe in question is 30cm asbestos mains running across the site and that using the rods you can trace its
location across 300ft of building site very reliably. There are also no signs or markers where the damn thing is which is unfortunate as we were told
it would be around £25k to repair if we were ever to put the digger through it! We even came across an unmarked mains cable just a foot below the
surface, pure chance we missed that 
Ivan - 7/7/08 at 10:34 AM
Although I don't believe in it I made some good money as a student doing it with Y shaped stick. People only paid me if they found water where I
said they would..
Have also found lost water mains in my town as a Municipal engineer - felt a prat doing it tho.
Mr Whippy - 7/7/08 at 11:01 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Ivan
Although I don't believe in it I made some good money as a student doing it with Y shaped stick. People only paid me if they found water where I
said they would..
Have also found lost water mains in my town as a Municipal engineer - felt a prat doing it tho.
So if you don't believe in it (or other words you don't think it works), why do you say you found the mains, shear luck or prior knowledge?
or 100 attempts?
v8kid - 7/7/08 at 11:05 AM
It just works for me, don't know how don't know why it just works.
Still use a CAT though!!!!!
02GF74 - 7/7/08 at 02:09 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy
I put both hands together so they could not tilt and they still moved apart (it isn’t subtle either, they swing very fast or slow depending on how
quickly you are moving forward and over the same spot repeatably (perfect for a scientific study ).
so if you were to do this onboard a ship and connect little electrickery generators to the sick, you would get free energy?
Mr Whippy - 7/7/08 at 02:44 PM
no cos they only move then you move and that requires more energy than was put in. No different than if you were walking past a magnet.
Not sure anything would happen in space anyway, very few water mains up there.
Did you know (I don’t think it has ever been in a science book, I just happened to notice it one night) that if you walk on the beach near the sea
where the sand is really wet and its quite dark, blue flashes go through the sand every time you put your foot down as you crush the quarts in the
sand and the charge gets conducted through the sea water. There are plenty of things not yet notice by science, they use to think meteorite hitting
the earth as preposterous nonsense not long ago and that people were just making it up.
Mr G - 7/7/08 at 06:08 PM
I think he mean 'boat' ship not 'space' ship
Ivan - 10/7/08 at 08:21 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy
quote:
Originally posted by Ivan
So if you don't believe in it (or other words you don't think it works), why do you say you found the mains, shear luck or prior knowledge?
or 100 attempts?
Don't believe in it because it goes against all my engineering trained schepticism re unproven science - but I'm pragmatic enough to use it
when I don't have better tools to do the job as the consequence of failure is embarrassment and a bit of wasted effort. 