When one mentions dowsing to the uninitiated, there might be\nblank looks, until you explain that water divining is one application of the\nart. Most folk seem to be aware of this mysterious ability to locate\nunderground water, often with little more than a forked twig. This is what\ndowsing is to many people. However ironically, I would suggest, not to the\nmajority of modern-day dowsers. In the UK, although there are many folk who\npractice dowsing, very few indeed are professional water diviners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what most people do not realise is the process a dowser\ngoes through to perform the search. Here I wanted to post a description of a method\nused by a successful water diviner, named George Applegate, who during his life,\nwas very well-known within the dowsing fraternity. He explained his methodology\nin his book: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Complete Guide to Dowsing. The Definitive Guide to Finding Underground Water. Published in 2002 by Vega, London. ISBN 1-84333-115-2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here I have taken an extract from the book, simply to\nillustrate some of the fundamentals of water divining. I have also added some additional\nnotes here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When dowsing for water, in addition to locating where a\nsubterranean \u201cstream\u201d might reside, such that a borehole might be successfully\nsunk, there are several pieces of information that need to be established.\nThese include the depth of the water, the flow rate of water, ie the volume\nthat one might expect to obtain in a given amount of time, the direction of\nflow and the purity of the water, ie is it OK to drink? So quite a lot of\ninformation to extract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The article here deals with actually locating the stream. Remember\nthat this is one dowser\u2019s personal overview, and that another dowser may have\nanother technique, but the I think that it describes some of the salient\npoints. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Applegate seemed to be a dowser who worked mainly with the\n\u201crod\u201d, ie the traditional forked stick. (There is a picture of him holding one\nsuch at the article). Therefore, the article refers to use of the Y rod when\nlocating water. However, as he points out, other dowsing devices can be used,\neach producing a reaction based on its design. Perhaps a more common one\nnow-days are angle rods. With these, the dipping action of a Y rod, would be\nreplaced by a rotation of the rods, either inwards so that they cross, or even\noutwards, so that the rods point in opposite directions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He starts with what he terms \u201cdistant dowsing\u201d. Here he asks\nin what direction a suitable source of water lies. His basic method is to turn\nthrough 360 degrees, rather like a \u201cradar\u201d, as he puts it, hoping to get a\nreaction in the rod during this circuit. He then walks in the direction of the\nreaction. Note he could also have done this on a map of the site, but he seemed\nto prefer being onsite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The very interesting fact about subterranean water is that\nit not only creates a reaction in the dowser, when they stand immediately above\nit, but also at several other points, on each side of the underground stream. These\nare the \u201creaction bands\u201d which he talks about. Unless a dowser is aware of\ntheir existence, they will most likely be misled and think they have found\nwater, but in totally the wrong place!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So as the dowser walks towards the stream, they will feel a\nnumber of reactions in their dowsing device, with the strongest of these being\nover the stream itself. They might mark each of these reactions. It is then\nimportant to repeat the process from the other side of the stream, as a confirmation\nof the first pass. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When above the stream, he uses the rotation method again, this\ntime though only through 180 degrees, searching for \u201ctwo fan-wise reactions\u201d,\nie two reactions which are separated by approximately 180, indicating the line\nof the stream. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is the interesting phenomenon of \u201ctrios\u201d. So, the reaction\nover the stream band itself is made up of three reactions, with the central one\nindicating the centre of the stream. Then as one moves away from the stream,\nanother trio of reactions occurs, which are sometimes referred to as the \u201cdepthing\u201d\nor \u201cflow\u201d bands. The central reaction of these three is particularly helpful, since\nit may be used to estimate the depth of the flow, using a method known as the\nBishop\u2019s rule. (Incidentally, the origin of this rule and its name remain unknown,\nbut it was known of in the late 18th<\/sup> century. However even in the mid-20th<\/sup>\ncentury, many water diviners did not use this method, but instead used methods\nof their own devising. I will cover some of these methods in later posts).<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is important that the dowser identifies the centre of the\nstream very accurately, so that when a bore hole is sunk, it does not miss the\nflow. And of course, a good estimate of the depth is necessary to understand\nhow deep to drill and whether this is actually cost effective. Estimating the\ndepth can be a very tricky business, and what is not stressed in the extract,\nis that a successful water diviner will also often draw on their knowledge of\nlocal geology. Also, the scenario\ndescribed is a simplified one. In practice there may be many confounding\nissues, for example when more than one steam close together, and for many\ndowsers, if clay is present between the water and the surface, this can prove a\nbig problem for depth estimation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, how dowsers discover the remaining information,\nsuch as quantity and quality of the underground water, I will deal with in\nlater posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The article is found here: \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n