It must also be significant that some water companies, eg the Sunderland & South Shields Water Co, employed dousers.
Stafford
-----Original Message-----
From: albyn austin [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tue 29/07/2003 17:25
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc:
Subject: Re: Dowsing
Having found I could dowse, I've used it to find the run of water and sewer
pipes, in the gardens of several houses. It has always worked a treat.
Also I was able to plot the course and extent of a short, blocked trial
level, with up to 4m of overburden above it. I then dug out the entrance
and found that reality matched my prediction. I've never written it up as
it really just rests on my evidence, but it convinced me that dowsing
worked.
I know at least one professional archaeologist who uses it occasionally
when trying to decide where to dig trial pits for instance in a field about
to be developed, where there is insufficient time or funds to carry out a
full geophysical survey. They keep very quiet about it professionally
though. They have however gained a reputation for being lucky in finding
sites.... regards, Albyn
----- Original Message -----
From: "Pratt, Daniel R." <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2003 4:51 PM
Subject: Re: Dowsing
> Hmmm. If I was surprised by the anti-science undercurrent re: dowsing,
> I was even more surprised by an ad hominem response.
>
> Despite your anecdote, John, I still believe that the
> mapping/exploration of underground resources (particularly where issues
> of public safety or historical research are concerned) should be
> performed using remote sensing technologies for which the accuracy has
> been established by the scientific method. Results of dowsing surveys
> should be repeatable, whether they involve multiple dowsers on a single
> work site or a single dowser on multiple sites. To my knowledge, there
> have been many anecdotal accounts of successful dowsing at individual
> job sites, but no one has produced scientific evidence that dowsing
> functions in a manner predictable by traditional Western laws of cause
> and effect.
>
> I am willing to consider the veracity of documented studies of
> successful dowsing conducted in controlled environments by researchers
> trained in the scientific method. Please point me toward an appropriate
> web address or send documents to the email listed below.
>
> Thank you, and sorry if I've struck any raw nerves...
>
> Daniel R. Pratt
> Architectural Historian/Archaeologist
>
> HDR ONE COMPANY | Many Solutions
> 6190 Golden Hills Drive | Minneapolis, MN | 55416-1567
> Phone: 763.591.5423 | Fax: 763.591.5413 | Email: [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Mason [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2003 9:30 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Dowsing
>
>
> I know many academics who have little time for dowsing.
>
> As one with a somewhat broader mind, I had chance to put it to the test
> in
> the late 1980s at Calliachar Burn gold prospect, Aberfeldy, Scotland.
>
> We were busy trenching a swarm of more-or-less parallel NW-striking thin
> (<<1m)auriferous quartz-sulphide veins steeply cutting Dalradian
> metasediments. Overburden on this heathery grouse-moor varied from 1.5
> to
> 4m in thickness. The vein discoveries had been made by deep-overburden
> geochemistry along lines at right-angles to the regional strike of the
> veins, sample spacing 10 metres. You trenched any anomalies in a SW-NE
> direction and any veins found were then trenched along strike, mapped
> and
> sampled. That's the scene set anyway.
>
> One day we were strike-trenching a vein and lost it at a cross-course
> fault. After scratching around for a bit without success, I thought "why
> not" and took two lengths of old fencing-wire and bent them into a pair
> of
> rods, setting out with a bundle of canes in case anything showed. I
> traversed across the moor at right-angles to the regional vein strike.
>
> After a while the rods crossed sharply and I banged a cane into the
> ground.
> I then circled this point, getting two more crossovers and marking them.
> They lined up NW-SE! I then headed on in a SE direction, covering as
> much
> ground as possible: by then a line of canes was in the ground. On
> reaching
> the river I noticed a rather "corrugated" look to the weed-covered rocks
> in
> the river-bed, bashed off a lump and lo and behold, quartz + sulphides.
>
> The line of canes was then trenched in up to 4m of overburden and along
> the
> vein channel-samples yielding over 100g/t Au across 0.6m were obtained.
> The
> stream outcrop was opened up and produced some interesting visible gold
> specimens.
>
> My boss took me to one side and said something like "well done, but for
> god's sake don't tell the top brass"!
>
> Well, that was my experience of dowsing. Just thought I'd tell you.
>
> John
>
>
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