Re: Vintage Water Divining manual dowsing 1925 FA

Panos wrote:

"George" <george@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:PYKwf.694951$_o.42192@xxxxxxxxxxxx

"Jo Schaper" <joschapern4ospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:11s60m4qsdnavc4@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

JaneyP wrote:

Springs of Water and How to Discover them by the Divining Rod by B
Tomkins author of Theory of Water Finding. 1925 Dustwrapper a bit
tired,grubby,original owners inscriptions,otherwise a good copy.green
cloth boards.
Really rare book by B Tomkins ,the famous Water Finder of Thetford .How
rare are Water divining manuals? Well,in many years of book buying,I've
only seen one other and that a booklet with it's covers detached! Mr
Tomkins certainly seems to know his stuff,the book is prefaced with
illustrations of medals he has won,as well as several pages of
satisfied patrons,ranging from the Duke of Beaufort,Duke of
Marlborough, and others ,down through more minor members of the
landholding aristocracy,and ending with various brewers,waterworks &
laundries.

Some chapters:- Theory of Water Finding an Ancient Art /Brief sketch of
my career /A valuable sptring found /Springs found in curious
places-Waterfinding in deep snow /Springs & courses of water /The
divining rod ,or dowsing rod as used in the search for underground
water /Estimating depth & yield etc.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6999358331&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1


a) This is a science newsgroup; we have no use for dowsing.

b) If we did, a quick look under New Age or Metaphysics will net you dozens of more up to date how-to books on dowsing. May be of interest to an antiquarian bibliophile, though.

I'm not suggesting that there is any science to it, but I have seen dowsers at work many times. Drillers often dowse, and so do utility workmen. I was conducting an environmental site investigation as a Chevron station in 1991, and needed to have the buried utilities re-marked because some of the markings didn't stay very long for some reason. A guy from the Metro sewer district came out and began dowsing the site, marking what he claimed was buried sewer lines, and then began dowsing near the area where our drill rig was set up (we were going to install environmental ground water monitoring wells), and told us that there was something underneath where we were going to drill. His dowsing rods were definitely being deflected. I checked the company's site plan again and there wasn't supposed to be anything in that area. I asked the manager of the station if he knew of anything in the immediate area, and he knew of nothing. After a few moments' discussion, I gave the reluctant driller the go ahead to start drilling, but to go slowly for the first five feet. Sure enough, after about two feet of drilling, an abandoned (thankfully) power cable from a former pump island got wrapped up onto the auger. I've seen similar instances as well. I've seen them get it wrong as well. I had a driller swear there was a buried utility right where I wanted him to drill. He had dowsed it earlier. Knowing that the guy just didn't want to drill that day, and knowing that all the buried utilities were on the other side of the road, I insisted that he go ahead and drill. He did finally drill the well at the location I wanted. There was nothing there to cause us any problems. Anyway, that's just my two cents worth. Dowsing supposedly detects electro-magnetic flux, but it could be anything (look up to make sure there aren't any phone cables of power lines overhead), or nothing at all. Who knows? Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. I have no idea how or why.

George


Hei George!

I find this subject facinating. If one assumes that dowsing detects electo-magnetic flux then indirectly one assumes that there is a science to it as well. So just admit that you are a relactant believer George... Personally I think that its one of the most brilliant hoaxes ever.

Interesting. I knew a highway dept. engineer who carried standard issue L-rods in his truck and used them--in fact, there are a number of industrial supply catalogs which carry 'L-rods'.

I've played with them...a number of cavers have used them to 'witch' caves, dug where the rods said, and found cave. Unlike water, no one can claim that 'cave' is everywhere, even in limestone. Probably the best example I know of is a person (call him Fred) who was an absolute skeptic on dowsing (and much else--agnostic, practical as nails, wouldn't tolerate sloppy thinking from anyone) took a mutual acquaintance of ours (call him Dave) who dowses (with his arms--not rods or sticks or anything) to a known cave whose only entrance is a vertical sinkhole. At that time, Fred had the only copy of the topographic overlay of the cave (which he had made, based on cave orientation) and challenged our friend to find the axis of the cave. (The cave, BTW, is entirely filled with 40-80 ft of water with 60-80 ft of air over it. Access to the cave was only by winch, only with permission of the owner, and Dave had never been in the cave.)

Dave circled the sinkhole doing his thing, paused several times, then struck out along the gravel road. Fred was almost beside himself with glee. "See, you couldn't find it, " Fred gloated. Dave just smiled and looked back at him, "See where I dropped my hankerchief? That's where your passage intersects the road." And according to Fred, Dave was right.

Although Fred couldn't perform the feat himself, (he tried with hazel switches, welding rods, highway department locator rods, etc.), and like myself, saw many of the pendulum, map dowsers, and body dowsers and others as pure quacks, damned if he could explain how Dave figured out the location of the passage. No good explanation, but some people think they can find caves that way, and they usually do.

I've had some success in the front yard (and my parent's home) finding utility pipes. Never saw a plat map of our property. Subdivision is built on a bullseye pattern, not a grid. Utility lines do not run on a grid. (In fact as I have learned, it is the screwiest non-pattern imaginable--probably has something to do with the fact of a near-surface contact between soft St. Pete Sandstone and the underlying Jeff City-Cotter dolomite). I hit two out of three (water and electric--did not find sewer here. At my parents' found the water and sewer and the wires crossed and shocked underneath the powerlines. Because I cannot rationally explain the 'hunches' and in one case, the electrical shock (like banging one's funny bone) in my forearms when I found the electric line here, I consider dowsing like being able to sing in key. Some people can, some people can't, regardless of training. (I for one, can listen from now until forever to a pitch pipe, and tell high notes and low notes, but if you asked me to approximate the pitch of the device with my voice, I can't. When I think I am, I'm half an octave off. My brain doesn't get it.)

Even after testing it personally, I don't think dowsing is scientifically valid, or that anyone who picks up rods can do it. But, hey, there are plenty of 'arts' which aren't scientifically 100% valid, but still work some of the time, enough to be of some value. Like medicine.
.

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  • Re: Vintage Water Divining manual dowsing 1925 FA
    ... A guy from the Metro sewer district came out and began dowsing ... I had a driller swear ... > caves, dug where the rods said, and found cave. ... > claim that 'cave' is everywhere, ...
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  • Re: Vintage Water Divining manual dowsing 1925 FA
    ... A guy from the Metro sewer district came out and began dowsing ... >> there was something underneath where we were going to drill. ... >> dowsing rods were definitely being deflected. ... does what a lot of people say it does (find water or oil), ...
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