THRUPE LITE EXTRA
~ Dowsing ~
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THRUPE LITE EXTRA~ Dowsing ~ |
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Too many questions, I'll only answer a few of them.
What is dowsing? In the
simplest case, a dowser takes a forked twig, or maybe a
pair of bent wire rods and walks with them across a
field. At some point, the twig may move or the rods
may cross. That is dowsing.
Dowsers may use many different objects when dowsing. This photograph of a group of dowsers shows them using pendulums, balanced beams, whale bones and other devices too indistinct to describe.
Although a wide variety of objects are used by dowsers in their work, all the objects have the common objective of detecting and amplifying very small movements of the dowser's hands. It is the dowser who moves the hazel twig, the twig itself merely detects and amplifies that movement.
What does the dowser detect ? Many opinions have been expressed, a great number of which are a trifle quaint and some stretch credibility to breaking point. However, over the centuries, the most consistent reports concern the finding of water or mineral veins.
So, ignore all the froth and bubbles and look at it from a practical point of view. If whatever-it-is-that-is-detected is associated with cave passage, the technique is of interest to diggers. But I can put it no higher than that; it is interesting but not much use.
It is all very well knowing that there is a void 10 yards away to the east, but we would need a digging machine to reach it. (According to tradition, such machines have picks of steel, are driven by a great wheel and are completely unstoppable). Deprived of such a means of boring through solid rock, diggers are stuck with excavating the existing passages and following them wherever they lead. So, there are severe practical limitations on the usefulness of dowsing or, for that matter, the usefulness of more reputable geophysical methods of cave detection.
Who can do it ? Most people can, although the strength of the response will vary from person to person. Try it, you may be surprised.
Why do the dowser's hands move? That, as they say, is the question ! I know of no satisfactory explanation, but there are some quite mind boggling theories to be found if you search on the internet.
Why do it? Dowsing may well be a meaningless activity and hence a complete waste of time but at least it is a less strenuous waste of time than digging. On a sunny day, it can be quite a pleasant occupation; possibly better than lying down full length in cold, muddy water. Take a day off - go dowsing.
Perhaps the last word on the subject should be left to Georgius Agricola, whose book on mining, De Re Metallica (literally "About things metal") was one of the first published works to mention the use of the divining rod for detecting water or metals. He wasn't hugely enthusiastic ...
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"Therefore a miner, since we
think he ought to be a good and serious man, should not
make use of the enchanted twig, because if he is prudent
and skilled in the natural signs, he understands that a
forked stick is of no use to him ..." |
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Unfortunately, we can't all be good and serious all the time, so some examples of the use of the enchanted twig follow ...
 FIG 1: Dowsing - September 2000 |
 FIG 2: Survey - October 2003 |
Some dowsing was tried out on 6th September 2000 in the field next to the Thrupe Depression. This was in the very early stages of the dig and before the breakthrough into Advent.
The dowsing was carried out by Tony Audsley, using wire rods and walking the field in a roughly NW to SE raster pattern, more or less parallel to the boundary between the field and the depression. The points where the rods crossed were marked on the ground by Alice, Annie & Rosie in such a way that their marks were not visible to Tony on his next pass. The marks were subsequently located using a prismatic compass.
The results are shown in Fig 1, above. The dowsing shows "something" trending NS and also "something else" which heads generally south-west before bifurcating (†) then fading out.
After the breakthrough, the cave was surveyed by Tav and the latest version of his survey of the cave in relation to surface features is shown in Fig 2. The correlation between the two is not very convincing, a N-S development is shown, but it is displaced some distance to the west of the cave according to Tav's survey.
____________Last modified: 23-Jun-2007