May 12, 2016

On finding water



Sam Smith - We needed to find a part of the pipe from our house in rural Maine to the septic field some distance away. After logic, and lengthy digging based upon it, failed to produce results our contractor called a guy who knew how to locate such things using a dowsing rod. And before I had finished breakfast, the pipe had been located.

Readers aware my preference for fact over fiction may find it odd that I allowed such behavior on my property, but this wasn’t my first experience with dowsing.

There was that day in the 1950s, when the actress Bette Davis came to help my parents find water on their farm.

Actually, she really just came along for the ride as did the Maine novelist Kenneth Roberts, both neighbors and friends of then famed water dowser, Henry Gross.

One of the reasons that Gross was famous was that in 1950 he had found three water sites in Bermuda just using a map and dowsing rod while sitting in Kennebunkport, 800 miles away. Bermuda had no wells at the time and Gross' efforts proved successful.

The most typical way to dowse was with a Y-shaped small branch. Dowsers held the two tops of the Y horizontal in their hands with the palms pointed up. If they found water, the rod descended despite the best efforts of the dowser to keep it level.

Scientists have never thought much of the technique. Wikipedia describes a "three-day test of some 30 dowsers [that] involved plastic pipes through which water flow could be controlled and directed. The pipes were buried 50 centimeters under a level field, the position of each marked on the surface with a colored strip. The dowsers had to tell whether water was running through each pipe. All the dowsers signed a statement agreeing this was a fair test of their abilities and that they expected a 100 percent success rate, however the results were no better than chance."

Some attribute any dowsing success to "a phenomenon known as the ideomotor effect: people's subconscious minds may influence their bodies without their consciously deciding to take action. This would make the dowsing rods a conduit for the diviner's subconscious knowledge or perception." In our case, for example, the pipe, was near a small stream where it was easier to dig.

Martin Luther had a far less kindly opinion, calling dowsing a violation of the First Commandment.

This teenager, as best as I can remember, thought along the lines of "Hey, whatever works," but later, as an anthropology major, I was struck by the prevalence in cultures around the world of what I came to regard as proto-science: coming up with right answers without the right explanations. Henry Gross had made me far more tolerant of shamans in distant lands.

Whether by chance or by skill, Gross found a number of well sites that we would use for decades. Some of these were flush to the ground, one of which (minus its top) may have been the culprit the day my father had to call the local veterinarian, Russel Pinfold, at a party to tell him a cow had fallen into a well. Dr. Pinfold put down his drink long enough to tell my father: "Is it head up or head down? Because if it's head down I ain't comin' over."

Other wells extended above ground thanks to a stone and cement cylinder around the hole several feet high and about five feet in diameter. That width was large enough to send a young teenager down to finish digging but not so comfortable for adults, which is how I learned how to make a well.

To this day I still find drilled wells somewhat strange and a little boring. Besides there's nothing to lean against or rest your soda can on.

As for my parents, when my father died and we were walking to the grave with the minister, he awkwardly informed my mother that while digging the hole, they had struck water and it was still mushy down there. What the minister also hadn’t expected was for the entire family of the deceased to break out laughing.

As for Henry Gross, I have come to accept the wisdom of that great scientist, Albert Einstein. A friend was surprised to come to his house and find a horseshoe over the door. The friend asked, "You don't believe in that, do you?" Replied Einstein, "Of course not, but they tell me it works."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

about as opposite to woo-woo crapola as a person can be (although i also keep in mind 'there are more things in heaven and earth...), but had an old explosive ordinance guy who told me as a last resort they would get a dowser involved to locate buried explosives... sure i was skeptical, then he had me try it in a building i had no familiarity with, and i located a water pipebelow the concrete slab... kind of weird how it worked, it REALLY felt like a subtle force was actually pulling -in this case- the two ell-shaped wire rods down... at this point, i am keeping an open mind on that phenomenon...
(but doing it to a map, does sound like woo-woo bullshit...)

Anonymous said...

We knew a grove manager who employed the 'L' shaped rod technique. His method was a bit different, the rods would be held one in each clenched fist, pointing forward and in such a way that they could rotate parallel to ground. As he approached an area near a water pipe the rods would draw closer together, eventually crossing each other in an appearance of an 'X'. His accuracy was astonishing and especially appreciated by farm hands who were saved from digging up any more ground than necessary when needing to repair broken irrigation pipe.

Anonymous said...

So, Sam, was the cow head up or head down?

Anonymous said...

I watched with dubious countenance as my new neighbor
helped me locate septic lines.

He used the L shaped coat hangers in each fist.
Held with virtually no pressure.

They are pointed forward, when you detect a disturbance
underground, they each take a 90 degree turn to the inside.

He found every one of them. There was no surface
evidence as these had been dug 20 years ago.

Later, as I was finally verified as a worthy neighbor,
he presented me with a set of my own.

I've used them. They work.

Anonymous said...

They do work test it and see for yourself.
Most construction workers will agree with me and since it works it does not matter why or how.
I have used hangers but I prefer using copper wire since copper seems more believable or acceptable than coat hangers.
It is easy to test and hard to disbelieve after testing
flip