1 EAGLETON NOTES: A Call For The Diviner

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Wednesday 24 July 2013

A Call For The Diviner

Do you believe in divining or dowsing?  You know finding things like water and pipes and so on under ground using twigs or two bent pieces of number 8 wire?  I'm not sure that I do and there certainly seems to be no scientific explanation for nor proof of it whatsoever.


Anyway I was just on my way out to town this morning when my cellphone went and I answered it on my hands-free but stopped as I'd only just driven out of the drive.  It was Gaz.  He was at the house site in Grimshader.  Could I give him a hand with……divining.

Now why on earth would I be asked to undertake some divining you might ask.

Well a few years ago when I was putting a small en-suite toilet and washbasin in my bedroom I needed to connect the outfall to the house main outfall pipe.  It was pretty obvious where it should have been but despite digging a 4-metre long and 400mm or more trench at 90deg to the line of the pipe just outside my fence line on the way to the main village outfall I could not locate it.  As a last resort a friend whom I have seen use it rather convincingly suggested that I try divining.   

So I made a couple of divining rods out of number 8 wire, turned on a tap to set the water flowing and set about trying to find the outfall on a wider area.  Lo and behold at one point the wires crossed quite strongly.  I thought it could be the breeze so I set off again.  I did it a number of times in a number of different approach lines always with the same result on the same spot.

Unfortunately it was over an area at the end of the house which had been concreted when the house had been extended.  Was I going to break open the concrete?  I did.  I dug a hole over half a metre deep to no avail.  I was just about to give up when I decided that as I'd started I'd carry on.  Another couple of inches or so and I came across what turned out to be a very large paving slab.  So I had to enlarge the hole until I could lift it out.  What was underneath?  A complete manhole from the original outfall which had been covered when the site had been built up (the site slopes) when the house had been extended many years ago.
  
Gaz had decided this morning when he arrived at his croft where he is about to build a new house, that the task of finding the water pipe leading to the site by digging a 30 or 40 metre trench trench across the croft through 80cm high grass was going to be a mammoth task.  So I set off for Grimshader with a couple of pieces of bent number 8 wire and, despite the 22℃ temperature, suitably protected with heavy clothing against the clegs he had warned me about.

What happened?  Well at first absolutely nothing apart from one isolated 'reading' which only occurred in one place (although consistently) at the distance from the house site he wanted to put the new stopcock.  So I went to the road end of the croft 100 metres away and started there.  I got a 'reading'.  So I moved down the croft and nearer the house site in 10 metre intervals and repeated the process until a line was established.  Then when I was near the house site we extrapolated the line near enough for the new main tap to be situated and we dug a hole.  There right in the middle of the hole was the pipe.  No one was more surprised than I was.

So whether one believes in divining or doesn't believe in it if you are looking for a pipe and don't have the sophisticated sonar equipment the water board presumably have then it's worth giving it a try.

16 comments:

  1. Spot on you are. I can do it sober. I have to not concentrate but be aware.
    I bet you believe in Ley Lines. I do the ancients didn't spend ages humping big stones here there and everywhere for nothing.
    Yours, The Old Age Traveller.

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    1. The thing about believing Adrian is that if it works it works whether one believes it or not.

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  2. My mother always used to say she could divine water and I believed her, she said you just had to wait for the twigs to move in your hands. Never did it for me though. Maybe you really are a bit mystic!

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    1. I'm not sure Jenny but it has worked for me whether I believe it or not.

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  3. Yes, it works apparently....you did it.
    I always associated divining with old timers, but you're not in that category at all!
    Glad you able to help out Gaz, but then again what are fathers for????

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    1. So true Virginia. What are we for? I knew, however, that the world had altered when I climbed with my son nearly 10 years ago and instead of me asking if Gaz was ok he was asking me. Mind you we were walking up the highest mountain on Harris which is less than 1000m whereas Gaz had just completed a snow climb of Mont Blanc the previous week.

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  4. well done! I've heard of divining, but I've never seen it in action.
    BTW, I've replied to your comment on my post about a store in Carmel. The store is in Carmel, Indiana- a suburb of our state capitol Indianapolis. Were you commenting about Carmel, California?

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    1. Yes Norma I saw your Carmel comment. I was referring to the California one of course. I should have twigged that the photos were recent and that you hadn't suddenly just popped over to California for the day! Sometimes I can be really silly.

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    1. So true Marcel. If faith could move mountains as is said then presumably it could do much lesser things too. I see no evidence!

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  6. I'm sure there'll soon be a divining app for mobiles. It's just a matter of time. Oh, and well done!

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    1. Thanks Frances. A divining app. Now there's thought.

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  7. Laughing at Frances' comment about the divining app... It's hard to say "I don't believe" when it's actually worked for you twice. I seem to recall another friend having done it too. I've never seen it with my own eyes though (I don't count TV), neither successfully nor unsuccessfully. So I'd say it seems it can be done but I don't know HOW it works and not sure it would work for anyone. Did Gaz try it?? And does it have to be No 8 wire?

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    1. No Monica it doesn't have to be No 8 wire. The friend who divines used a wire coat hanger suitably adapted last time I saw him do it. Gaz tried it a bit and, if I recall correctly, did get a result.

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  8. I'd also like to know the answers to Dawntreader's questions. Can they be wooden sticks? or does the metal work because of magnetic pull??

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    1. Jaz I know that some people use twigs and sticks. The water pipe is alkathene or some other non-metal. I used No 8 wire simply because I had a roll handy and they were good and sturdy and not likely to be swayed in the breeze (not that there was one yesterday).

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