Two of the UK's water companies are still using dowsing to find leaks

  • 📰 newscientist
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 26 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 14%
  • Publisher: 51%

Switzerland Nachrichten Nachrichten

Switzerland Neuesten Nachrichten,Switzerland Schlagzeilen

Some UK water companies are STILL using dowsing to find leaks. Most have dropped the scientifically discredited method, but Thames Water and Severn Trent Water say their engineers continue to use it

The ancient practice of water divining is still used across the world to locate water sources.

Forty years ago, we wondered whether it might actually workLast August, rain fell for the first time at the peak of Greenland’s ice sheet, but this had little impact on ice melt compared with other effectsA skin crafted from two layers of electrodes around an ion-infused sponge is better at sensing than human skin because it can detect nearby objects and what they are made ofThe ability of humans to believe in many things can be beneficial in many ways, say our readers, even if it can lead us...

Wir haben diese Nachrichten zusammengefasst, damit Sie sie schnell lesen können. Wenn Sie sich für die Nachrichten interessieren, können Sie den vollständigen Text hier lesen. Weiterlesen:

 /  🏆 541. in CH
 

Vielen Dank für Ihren Kommentar.Ihr Kommentar wird nach Prüfung veröffentlicht.

It discredits but does not disprove? So dowsing has merit, if no other learnings or techniques applies? I'd it does have a hit rate better than guessing.

ما هم از این رویش برای جستجوی آب استفاده میکنیم

Good for them, dowsing works really well, although not with the type of rods shown. If you don’t believe it is possible to find water, leaks or a myriad of other sought out items, then you won’t find the subtle energies, and then it’s easy to disprove. You’d be wrong though.

I've used dowsing rods made from metal coat hangers to find underground water lines often. Worked every time.

Oh goodness, that's a hog wash. THERE are always those who fall for this nonsense?! How about a thorough reform of Education and training?

I'm shocked! By now they should have stopped doing this.

Maybe I should use my special ability, telekinesis, to pay my water bill this year.

and this is why we need good scientific education.

WTAF This is insane...!

I use sometimes a metal cloth hanger with a weth cloth on one hand and bare feet to act like an induction loop searching for wires in a wall as long as everything is insulated ( otherwise you fry crisp ) you can feel a slight tingle and cramp if you are sensitive.

May I recommend Denzil?

They use it because it works.

So does the VRC ever year before 1 peg went in the ground in the Birdcage out would come Peter Ford with his dowsing rods.

The old divining Rod. That’s what it was called when i was younger.

Not engineers then

Probably because they have so many leaks the diviner can’t miss

Oh Fellows I prefer the use of physics, including the common Field Theory: I prefer the general field concept of physics and the associated Field Theory. Akkurate knowledge is more useful.

GGmilgram ☝️ in UK too, they are pas sortis du sable.

The companies that have stopped using dowsing haven't found any new water for years.

Haven't they started some dogs finding leaks now? I'm sure I saw something about this on the TV some time ago. They were checking over large fields and saving a lot of time.

Radio 4 had a guy who wouldn't say which local authority hired him. The dudes from the water company had a leak sensor that worked best when it was right over a leak. Downer guy told them where to put the probe rather than have them spend ages criss-crossing fields or roads

Kind of like face masks and mRNA vaccines?

The guys who sank a borehole at our house in Cornwall, England did it. They had to dig VERY deep to find the water. They explained it’s such a massive effort nobody wants to do it without dowsing first!

Are leaks not being fixed via the method?

🤬

I remember dousing with the castle groundsman at Hereford Art College by the river Wye ! Watching him,my curiosity got the better of me so I asked him to show me .Handing me his divining hazel rods. I was amazed at how easily they floated and crossed indicating water lay beneath.

I have seen my dad, a now-retired old school plumber, dowse for water pipes in fields, and he was able to locate the pipes, give an indication of how big the pipe was and know in what direction it was flowing. It might be scientifically discredited, but it totally works.

Do you think they use dowsing exclusively, or perhaps in conjunction with modern tec? I have witnessed positive results from this, although still perplexed. Curious minds want to know..

Do you think they use dowsing exclusively, or perhaps in conjunction with modern tec? Curious minds want to know..

Any person who uses dowsing rods to find water should not be referred to as an engineer. Thames Water and Seven Trent Water should more accurately state that they employ wizards.

Ur on crack

A lot of leaks maybe...

Yes, they might find water - but it is nothing to do with the metal or wooden sticks. These are props. They use clues from the environment allied to their experience.

If you don't find the leak, you don't have to fix it. Think of the dividend payout!

Read Tom Graves’ books on dowsing and learn why it can work. It’s not magical or even mysterious. Rather it’s an amplifier for what the engineers already know.

Funny if it's been discredited. Why does it work.

They use it because it works.

That explains rather a lot

No leaks, fully broken lines here

These days, there is probably a good chance of finding a leak wherever they happen to dig their hole. Seriously though, I have anti-giraffe tinsel in my Devon garden and there hasn't been a single sighting.

I assume they also offer Homeopathy and Crystal Healing as part of the employee health benefits package?

Are they really engineers? 🤦‍♂️

princertitude J’ai vu un ouvrier utiliser cette technique lors de travaux dans notre maison de famille (en Auvergne). C’était pour trouver des canalisations existantes. J’étais super sceptique surtout que son patron disait « il a le fluide ». 1/2

It’s easy to say that what is unexplainable is impossible but I find it hard to deny some thing exists because I cannot explain it. There is far more that I cannot explain than what I can. Some animals can smell underground water. Perhaps some humans too. It’s to early to tell.

danny_robins

Why not explain it in science?

Interesting. I wonder if they have any data that can be verified to back up their assertions to stick by it in the face of critics. Maybe they'll share one day.

Amazing

um, dowsing without so much as a single consult from an oracle to read the auguries? zero sacrifices aforehand? what a waste of time

forteantimes

That's why most of their automotive and machinery brands disappeared. Science is clearly not an option there.

Once a paving outfit covered a water meter near us with asphalt. Water company sends a man over, he pulls a dowsing rod out of his truck, nods OK, and scrapes the asphalt off right where the meter was. Go figure...

thameswater What?

FFS

Idiots

It works. I've done it. I was totally sceptical beforehand and astonished that it worked.

In France dowsing is applied by some grape farmers in order to locate natural underground water flows, the claim is that it works ...

I wonder if some gas companies are still using canaries as well…

I don't believe in any pseudoscience or divination, and the one time I tried dowsing with metal L rods it clearly worked, like a compass. I attributed low intensity magnetic fields. Maybe those 'scientific' studies not were not properly carried out.

Lol, guess they have religious or superstitions. I'd send them home if they tried that medieval bs

I seen local council in Ireland using a listening device … technician walked over pipeline and few times to pin point leak, sprayed a blue arrow… following day repair guys turned up with a digger… sorted, I was impressed 👍

i wonder 🤔 electric companies are using what 😏 a sidekick? 🤣

It’s called the water table. It’s below the earth almost everywhere. May as well take a stick and point anywhere. Dowsing is pure baloney.

Is their last name really water?

Lol

They don't believe in methane detectors. Do they believe in thermometers?

It explains why it takes Thames Water so long to fix leaks. Water dowsers are in short supply, they sometimes take weeks to find a suitably qualified dowser. They had outsourced the inhouse dowsers.

Most of the world use this method for finding water, it's well known that it's the best and easiest way to find water. Obviously our modern, over-scienced world would poo-poo this method..

When I had a water leak I tried this to find it. It did not work and I had to dig so many holes to eventually sort out the problem.

I have always been sceptical but have discovered to my great surprise it works

What does 'scientifically discredited' even mean anymore

stwater Would you like to comment? As a paying customer I am appalled that some of my money is wasted on superstitious nonsense with no supporting evidence. Time to stop this charade.

Unacceptable nonsense. What next? Reading tea leaves to diagnose broadband problems?

sallylepage I imagine there’s a good chance you’re sick of hearing about this, but Severn Trent are still at it!

It doesn't fail, i have used those copper rods and for me the wooden forks are even better

Expect they still refer to the company's horoscope every morning though. And tarot cards are a must ! That any of them used dowsing in the first place indicates a lot about the behaviour of water companies in the UK.

I’ve seen utility locators in Illinois, USA use these

stwater This isn't true right? Is this seriously what your £1.8mil a year revenue is spent on?

Switzerland Neuesten Nachrichten, Switzerland Schlagzeilen