Richard Ellam Bristol. I have never fully understood the almost visceral hatred people of a certain level of disconnection have with those who choose to use methods that work, but which may have — as yet — no scientific basis.
The water companies use dowsers. They have done so for a long time. These are not stupid or flaky people, they are professional, engaged in providing a service for profit. Perhaps the nay-sayers would like to spend a week with a professional dowser and then see if they change their minds. Otherwise, we are just perpetuating the same kinds of hysteria that accompanied witch burnings. Manda Scott Clunbury, Shropshire. I have a pair of divining rods. My granddaughter was delighted when they formed a cross when being held over the toilet bowl.
Could the scientists tell me why they do this? Ann Newell Thame, Oxfordshire. Of course water divining works. Have you not read Pigeon Post by Arthur Ransome? Try it yourself by cutting a wire coat hanger into two, discarding the hook, and holding the short lengths lightly in you hands, long lengths out straight, as you walk towards a water source.
Jill Moss Chester. I was taught to dowse as an engineering undergraduate by my tutor, a world authority at the time on the chemistry of clays. He had been commissioned by the government in the s to survey the island of then Ceylon for graphite deposits. He found that dowsing was a far more reliable, quick and cost-effective method than any geophysical technique then available because of the irregular nature of the underground deposits.
I have used it successfully to survey underground water courses and drains where digging up the ground was not an option. Dowsing is in the same category as gravity and quantum mechanics in that science cannot explain how it works, but that it works is irrefutable.
As a first-class honours graduate in civil engineering, I was very sceptical when starting my site experience on the M61 motorway in , to be told I would be taught water divining. But did you know that natural and human-induced chemicals can be found in groundwater even if appears to be clean?
Below is a list of some contaminants that can occur in groundwater. Wells are extremely important to all societies. In many places wells provide a reliable and ample supply of water for home uses, irrigation, and industries.
Where surface water is scarce, such as in deserts, people couldn't survive and thrive without groundwater, and people use wells to get at underground water. Groundwater is crutial to millions of Americans as well as many more worldwide. Groundwater provides drinking water to many. Thus, having reliably clean groundwater is of concern for many throughout the world. But, groundwater can become contaminated with chemicals, biologic organisms, and other possibly-harmful agents.
Artesian water is really not different from other groundwater, except for the fact that it flows to the land surface because pressure in the rocks underground force it to the surface. But, having water flow to the surface naturally is a handy way to tap groundwater resources.
Groundwater is a valuable resource both in the United States and throughout the world. Groundwater depletion, a term often defined as long-term water-level declines caused by sustained groundwater pumping, is a key issue associated with groundwater use.
Many areas of the United States are experiencing groundwater depletion. Most of us don't have to look for water. We grew up either in big cities where there was a public water supply, or in small towns or on farms where the water came from wells. But there are some people to whom finding a new supply of water is vitally important. Skip to main content. Search Search. Water Science School. Water Dowsing. Groundwater Photo Gallery Learn about groundwater through pictures Visit the gallery.
Get GW data. Groundwater Information by Topic Learn more. Science Center Objects Overview Related Science Publications "Water dowsing" refers in general to the practice of using a forked stick, rod, pendulum, or similar device to locate underground water, minerals, or other hidden or lost substances, and has been a subject of discussion and controversy for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
This man is using a hazel twig to find water on the land around his farm. The rods are typically held in a position of unstable equilibrium, so that a small movement gets amplified into a big movement. The movements of the rods do not seem like they are coming from the small vibrations in the dowser's arms, since these vibrations are so small and the rod's movements are so large.
From the false assumption that the movements of the rods are not coming from the small random vibrations of the dowser's arms, people then make the illogical leap that the movements must therefore be caused by something powerful that is out of sight, i.
Since successfully locating underground water can save a farmer the trouble of digging several wells that end up dry, and since scientific approaches can be expensive, there is a strong incentive for people to want water dowsing to work. Unstable equilibrium describes a state where all the forces on an object cancel out but the slightest deviation from the point of equilibrium causes the object to fly off.
For instance, if you place a marble on exactly the top edge of a sharply-ridged roof, the marble will sit there motionless since the forces pulling it down either side of the roof cancel out.
However, if the slightest breeze blows past the marble, it will give the marble a small bump toward one side of the roof. The forces will no longer cancel and the marble will shoot down one side of the roof. Since the marble was in a state of unstable equilibrium, gravity was able to amplify a small movement invisible to humans the bump from the gentle breeze into a large movement the marble rolling down the side of the roof. To the naked human eye, it looks like a power agent exists only on one side of the house and is drawing the marble towards it.
If we didn't understand the concept of unstable equilibrium, we may be tempted to say that there is underground water only on the one side of the house which pulled the marble down that side. Belief in water dowsing operates on this type of misunderstanding. In many areas of the world, water dowsing seems to really work. In such areas, the location that the dowser points out indeed leads to a productive well.
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