DOWSING & WATER
WITCHING SCIENCE OR SCIENCE FICTION
By Pal LaClaire - Physicist (retired) USA
© 2004 Pal LaClaire and ISD
The International
Society of Dowsing Research http://dowsingworks.com
[ Editor Note : In
this article dowsing and "witching" are interchanged . In this case the
author prefers the term "witching"][ In other cases the dowsing tool
is referred to as "the witch" ] [ This was scanned using text
recognition software so all characters and footnotes aren’t exact ]
Brief History
Without stretching the meaning of facts, the first
historical mention of water witching is found in a book by Agricola "De re
Metilurgica", from about 1560. Agricola claims that the miners in Bavaria
used witching to find ore veins. He says that even in his time the subject
caused lively debate as to whether it worked or not.
It proved interesting enough to Queen Elizabeth to import dowsers from Bavaria
to help her miners locate ore. From
England it spread to the southern part of Europe and also migrated to the New
World with colonists. It persists to this day in the USA. In fact
there are Dowsing Societies all over the place. You can find them on the Internet
by doing a Google Search under "Dowsing".
Literature
If you go to the library in search of witching [dowsing] literature, It doesn't take long to find that
the material falls into three areas:
1] Those that believe
2] Those that are open
to suggestion
3] Those that believe
it to be pure nonsense.
According to a survey
done by a psychologist and an archeologist of the water departments of the
counties in the USA, about 50% fall into the first two
categories and 50% fall into the third category. There
are some interesting things to note in this survey. What
type of folks fall into each of these categories. For the most part, people in
the first category are those that have witnessed witching by someone, and
witchers themselves. The second category are most folks that say that if the
art has been around this long that there could be something to it. The last
category is the Hydrology folks, the US geological survey and the like.
Incidentally, the guys doing the survey came to the conclusion that the working
of the witch was caused by muscle twitching. My personal feelings are that you
don't send accountants to do physics. If you look harder and deeper into the
subject you can find some very scientific books that have some very interesting
things to say about water. But we are getting ahead of our story.
Background
I happened to find out quite by accident a few years back, that my grandfather could
do witching and in fact was called on quite frequently by folks around Medford
Oregon to locate drill sites. Again, quite by accident, I saw a performance of
witching (1996) in front of my brother-in-law's house in Hayden Idaho. A
contractor was going to build a house on the lot next door. He had hired this
guy to locate the sewer and water mains going past the lot. He
proceeded to do this by the use of devices called "L"
rods by walking up and down the street and making
paint marks on the asphalt every once in a while. I was curious and I went out
and asked him what he was up to? He said "locating the pipes". I
~sked him if I could try it. He said yes and proceeded to show me how it was
done. When I tried it, it worked the first time and every time. I was shocked.
My back ground is Physics and I worked in Electronics for 45 years as an
engineer, mostly in silicon processing. I ended my career at Hughes Aircraft-Space
and Com Division, Still working in Electronics. I would not have bet ten cents
that witching worked ten seconds before I tried it I thanked the guy and went
away scratching my head.
This is when I went to the library. After much reading and practicing I fell
into the second category. I reasoned that if witching has been around since
Agricola, at least, there must be something to it. If there was, there had to
be a physical reason why it worked. If there was a physical reason then there
had to be science to it One day while I was poking around the net in the
dowsing area, I found an article by a man named Hans Dieter Betz. This was
simply a report that showed without doubt that witching worked. It reported the
activity of a drilling project by a branch of the German government in arid
third world countries to locate and drill wells to some tough specifications.
They were quite successful. But not so fast. The title was "Locating Water
by Unconventional Means" and the reference that led me to it was in the
American Dowsing Society Page. http://www.dowsers.org
Hans claimed that the project lasted for ten years and reported the drilling of
some 2000 successful wells. He claims that the project started with the
conventional means of locating drill sites using the techniques of Hydrology,
Geology and Geophysics. During this period the team was 30% or so successful.
That is they hit water and met the specs one out of three tries. Later, they
hired a witcher named Hans Schroter to locate sites. In Sri Lanka, they were
96% successful using Schroter's input. On a second job they were 80% accurate
with Schroter leading in Nigeria. That was enough for me. Obviously this guy
Schroter had some sense of what he was doing. He could map an area, locate a
drilling site, tell how deep to drill, tell how much water to expect at this
site and whether it was potable or not. I decided to take the input at face
value. Hans could do the things he claimed. But how physically did he do it?
This was missing from the report.
Betz also reported that he had tried some controlled experiments and had come
to the conclusion that witching could not be studied in the lab?? Betz, I
forgot to mention, is a physicist at Munich University. His statement surprised
me. He also claimed that nothing could be done until someone found the
threshold for the force driving the witching stick. This, I agreed with.
Experimental Evidence
I decided to get involved. It was a project and retirement was boring. Since I
had already done some reading and found most of the literature pure "BS",
I decided to approach the subject by experimental means. First "What was
the threshold?" I defined the threshold much as you would for a radio
receiver; "the minimum signal to get a useful output" The signal had
to be proportional to the quantity of water, so this translated into "What
is the minimum amount of water that will make the witch work?" This turned
out to be less that a gram of water. But a gram is a nice amount and
measurable, about a teaspoon full. Using a gram of water and some rulers, it
was found that the signal from our gram of water fell off with the distance as
about Ae-bx and was radially symmetrical with the source. See (fig 1) link
A very interesting
finding. The force had to be long range. That means either gravity or
electromagnetic if it fell into the realm of real life physics. This could not
be decided from this experiment, as both gravity and
electrostatic forces fall off as the inverse square of the distance. More
experimenting with this need be done.
Betz had suggested that the driving signal from the water propagated through
cracks in the basement rock to the surface where they were detectable in narrow
bands along the ground. I tried this out at three different drill sites found
by witchers in widely separated parts of the country; Medford Oregon, Bradly
Colorado, and Nordman Idaho. I found that the narrow band idea was indeed
correct. See (fig 2,3,4) link
In fact this was one
way that Schroter could map an area for possible sites. Well, if the idea is
true that the signal propagates in cracks and is narrow at the surface then the
signal has to everywhere else be attenuated by the solid uncracked rock. This,because
the signal drops to complete zero within a few feet of the strongest surface
signal. It was found that a crack in the rock could be traced for hundreds of
feet by following this signal. This, by the way is one of the complaints of the
Hydrologists. They claim that the witcher cannot map an area. Not so. The area
can be mapped for sites and sources, depth and flow rate with ease. (See Maps) link
Experimentation
It was decided to try the attenuator theory. Is the signal from the water
attenuated by the rocks? Using the one gram source and some odd things around
the house the answer came out yes. Rock bookends, bricks and even wood were
shown to be effective attenuators. (See fig 5) link The signal fell off exponentially with thickness of
attenuating material. This is what happens to electromagnetic signals when
passing through dielectric materials. (insulators) Bricks, wood and rocks are
dielectrics when dehydrated. Not only was the signal decreased but enough
material could be put in the path to completely cut off the signal. For
example, five inches of the bookend rock cut off the one gram signal. It took
eight inches of fire brick and twelve inches of wood. This is also what you
would expect from an electromagnetic effect. The dielectrics are characterized
by thickness among other things. And once again Betz was correct, the rock does
attenuate and in fact cuts off the signal. Is he right about the second part of
the statement? Does the signal propagate through cracks in the rock?
The bookends happened to be 6 inches tall and have three smooth cut sides that
are square to each other. The rocks were placed on the table and pushed
together on a smooth side so that there was no crack. The signal was cut off by
the rocks. Cracks were formed of width twenty five, thirty five and forty six
mills. The signal increased for each increase in crack width, becoming max at
the 46 mil dimension. The signal increased in an exponential way with the width
of the crack as about AX to the(3.5) power. (See fig 6) link
This is also an
interesting finding. This is acting like a slit in a spectroscope and the
signal as if it were a microwave. In fact the signal can be estimated by the
crack dimensions to be somewhere around 300 to 600 gigahertz. The
wavelength of such a signal would be around half the crack width. 23 mil is
about one half a millimeter and translates to 520 ghz. Well now, this is
interesting. Electromagnetic signals in fact react to the slit in a
spectrograph and in fact this is how the frequency and wavelength of such
signals are determined
(footnote 5)
By whim, it was determined to check the signal from the
different phases of water. Ice was the easiest to come by. When checked against
ice straight from the freezer it was observed that there was no signal to drive
the witch coming from the ice. However, water could be detected through the
ice. It was also determined that one gram of ice water put out less signal that
one gram of 200 degree water. Hence the signal was temperature sensitive with a
cut off at the freezing point. This is what we would expect if the signal was
produced by mechanical motion such as translation or rotation of a charge.
Conclusions
The signal driving the witch looks very much to be a microwave signal in the
neighborhood of 500 ghz, caused by mechanical motion of the polarized water
molecules, and driven by heat energy. Is this correct? If so then the signal
shall have to respond to tests that light will react to.
Testing the Hypothesis
There are three simple tests of the kind mentioned.
1] The signal must be
reflected by a silvered mirror and focused by an optic lens.
2] The signal must be
cut off by a thin layer of conductive metal foil.
3]
The signal must react to a spectrograph and produce a line spectrum if it is in fact atomic or molecular
motion producing the signal.
Second test
The second test is by far the easiest to perform. All that is required is a
strong signal source and some aluminum foil. A one pint source (456 grams) was
placed on the table and the witch was shown to react strongly to the source.
When the foil was placed over the water source, the signal was completely cut
off This is the predictable response as calculated right from the classical
electrodynamics of Maxwell. Knowing this, it is possible to conduct the first
and third experiments simply.
First test
The first thing that had to be done for the reflecting and focusing experiment
was to isolate the water source so that you could form a beam. Since the
aluminum was an effective shield against the field, a mini screen room could be
made from a cardboard box covered with the foil. This was done and a trap door
was provided in the back side with a small slit in the face of the box. Mirrors
and lenses were arranged in the following way.
(See fig 7) One plane mirror was placed about one meter in front of the box
face. It was set parallel to the face and rotated to a 45 degree angle so that
a light would be reflected to the right looking from behind the box. A second
mirror was set on the table in line with the reflection of the first mirror and
set at a 45 degree angle to the surface of the table so that the beam would be
deflected to the ceiling. A focusing lens with a short focal point of about six inches was placed
in the beam between the slit in the box and the first mirror.
The mirrors and the lens were aligned using a small laser
pointer light. The intercept points on the mirrors and lens were marked with a
marking pencil.
A water source of a few grams was placed in the screen room box in front of the
slit. The box was checked to see that indeed it had isolated the water source.
When the witching stick was placed in the beam, it reacted. When it was moved
out of the projected beam the motion stopped. There was no signal behind the
mirrors in line with the beam projection. The beam was indeed reflected just as
the laser light source-had been; finally to the ceiling.
Third test
It was decided to make yet another trip to the library before doing the third
and final test. I Started at home with a few books that we had used at the
University of Washington. One in Particular mentioned the different radiative
modes and energies at which they occured.4 (See fig 8) Another was devoted to
microwave spectroscopy. These two books induced me to go to Moscow Idaho and
visit the University Library in search of books and articles on Far Infrared
and Microwave Spectroscopy. I found there at least one hundred books that
talked about Spectroscopy and about twenty or so that covered the specific
subjects of Far Infrared and Microwave. Along with this were several articles
dating from 1917 to present on the absorption spectra of water vapor. 6-10 It
came down that water had absorption spectra stretching from the near infra red
into the high microwave region. These spectra had been calculated to a high
degree of precision and some of them confirmed by measuring with a spectroscope
and bolometer. The first article with such calculation was from 1937, Applied
Physics,6 and calculated and measured the pure rotational water vapor spectrum.
It stretched from about 9000 gig to about 16,000 gig. Hurrah for our side! The
single slit indication seemed to be right. The next articles of interest were
books from the 70s. These extended the spectra down to about 400 gig. I went
back home determined to give it a try.
The spectroscope was constructed out of a piece of copper tubing, for
collimation, the mini screen room and a diffraction grating.(fig 9) The tube
was stuck through a hole cut on the back of the box and set in line with a
rectangular window cut in the face of dimensions 2x4 centimeters. The diffraction
grid was pasted over the window. All this was lined up to project on the room
wall about a meter away. A meter ruler marked in millimeters was laid along the
wa1l to measure lateral distance.
The diffraction grating was made from ten mill copper wire stretched and stuck
to sticky tape on a cardboard stiffener. The wire was laid side by side and
then every other one removed to give a space and line width of 10 mills. This
was taped up in front of the rectangular window. A silicon filter was used to make
sure no visible light made it through and bricks were used as attenuators to
decrease the signal to a useable magnitude.
All this done, a water source of one gram was placed in the wave-guide and the
end sealed with aluminum foil. The signal was measured at one millimeter
increments down the wall from centerline. Sure enough, there was a spectrum.
The spectra were then measured for distilled water, well water from my tap and
saturated saline solution at room temperature.(table 1) The spectra were
distinctly different. This is a physical basis for Schroter being able to tell
whether the water was salty or not. The results were calculated for inverse
centimeters and charted for comparison with what I had found in the library. (See
chart 1) link It matched up pretty well. The useful range of the ten
mill grid was from about 30,000 gig to about 4,000 gig. This setup was used to
measure the spectra of other aqueous solution, such as ethyl and propyl
alcohol, sodium hydroxide, iodine, bicarbonate of soda and a bunch of other
things. All had their own unique spectrums.
A second grid was made using one half centimeter wide strips of copper foil.
This grating covered a range of about 1,400 gig to 50 gig. There was signal
from the water over this entire range.
Conclusion of Data
The bottom line here is that Kirchoff and Bunsen were right. The spectra for
individual atoms and molecules are unique and if they absorb then they also
have to emit provided that there is enough energy to excite the states. Water
absorbs and water emits, right
down to the ice point. The signal is indeed line spectra caused by the
vibration, rotation and translation of the water polar molecule driven by the
engine of heat. Because the strongest signal is of rotation there will be no
signal from the ice phase. The only thing new that has been found here is that
the witching stick is able to measure an electromagnetic signals. It is a broad
band receiver, covering at least ITom 50 gig to visible light. The later is
proved by focusing sun light on the crotch of the stick and having it react. It
will also react to a ruby red laser pointer beam. It will also react to
infrared produced when a silicon filter is introduced between the rod and the
sun beam.
I guess that one final thought is that water witching can indeed be explained
at least in one case by plain old physics. How the human body and stick
interact with the field is yet to be discovered. So there is plenty of work for
anyone interested in the subject.
All that has been said here has been well documented by video tapes of the
experiments and by bibliographic reference.
The author is ready to demonstrate what has been said here at anytime.
©
Pal LaClaire 1999
Bibliography
1] Vogt and Hyman, "Water Witching USA"
2] Fred Seaton, Thomas B. Nolan; "The Divining Rod"; Dept ofInt, 1917
3] H.D. Betz, "Locating water by Unconventional Means", Journal of
Scientific Inquiry. 4] F. Daniels, R.A. Alberty; "Physical Chemistry"
1955.
5] C.L.Andrews; "Optics of the Electromagnetic Spectrum". 1960
6] George L. Clark, "The Encyclopedia of Spectroscopy"
7] W.W. Sleator "Absoption ofInfrared Radiation by
Water Vapor"; Astrophysics Journal,48,125,(1918)
8] HM. Randall; D.M. Dennison; N. Ginsburg; L.R. Weber, "The far Infrared
Spectrum of Water Vapor"; Physics review, 52, 160,(1937)
9] G.W. Chantry, "Modern Aspects of Microwave Spectroscopy".
QC454.M5, 1979 10] Molar and Rothchild "Far Infrared Spectroscopy"
QC457.M63,1971
List of figures.
1] Field intensity curve as a function of distance. Ae-bx. Fig. 1.
2] Field maps of drill sites. Fig 2,3,4.
3 Field intensity as a funtion of dielectric thickness. Fig 5
4] Field intensity as a function of gap width. AX3.5. Fig 6
4] Mirror reflection set up. Fig 7
.
5] Expected energy ranges for modes of atomic and molecular
transitions. Fig 8 6] Spectroscope. Fig 9
List of tables
1] Distilled Water, Tap Water, Saline Solution.
2] Sodium Hydroxide, Potassium Chloride, Magnesium Sulfate 3] Hydrogen
Peroxide, Boric Acid, Ammonia
4] Propanol, Ethanol
List of Charts
1] Charts of Spectral Frequencies of water, compared. Cl, C2.
In the tables, Y is lateral dimensions along the wall from centerline of the
diffraction grating in millimeters; A is the number of vibrations for the
cantilever to come to a fixed height (6 inches peak to peak); F is the
frequency in 1012 hertz; Inverse A is the arbitrary intensity of the signal at
Y.
Grating and Calculations
The diffraction grating dimensions are 4 centimeters long and 2.5 centimeters
wide. The space and line dimensions are 0.025 centimeters line and space, or
the grid constant is 0.050.
The distance of the grid to measuring track is taken as 96 centimeters.
The frequency is calculated by use of a hand held programmable calculator and
the program:
1 data.{YXDl
2 U=tan-\Y/X)
3 Z=sinU 4 L=DxZ 5 F=3xlOlOfL
Where Y,X,D are the dimensions of the system,
U
is the angle from grid centerline to is sine of the angle-
L
is the wavelength at Y , and F is the frequencv of the signal at Y