[TowerTalk] Underground Utilities

[gdaught6 at stanford.edu]

Tom wrote,

> It is super easy
> and contrary to popular belief, you don't have to be 'possessed' to do
> it..hihi! Just cut two pieces of copper wire (only because it is easy to cut
> and will move freely) about 12" long (not precise and not a magic number).
> Bend the wires 90 degrees at about the 5 inch point. Now hold the short end
> if the wires loosely, one in each hand, and walk slowly over the suspected
> area. Hold the wires just below your waist but hold your arms steady so you
> don't move the wires up and down. As you approach a buried wire or a buried
> water pipe, the long end of the wires will begin to move toward each other.
> When you are directly over the buried wire/pipe, the copper wires will cross
> each other. Now you know where your wire/pipe is buried. 

I have two $0.02 worth to add to this.  

$0.02 : My father-in-law, Chet, was the manager of a water company in Lisle, Illinois 
and then in West Lafayette, Indiana with many years of service in each place.  He 
said that there were fellows in his crews who could do this.  Early on, he watched one 
of these guys at work.  He worked as described above, and found a water line quick 
as you please.  Chet was incredulous, but wouldn't argue with success.  Chet's 
employee had him try it, and it worked.  Chet didn't know why, but accepted the 
method from then on.  

$0.02 : When I first went to work in bioengineering, there was a project going on to 
try to uncover the actual physical/physiological basis for this 'ability'.  Two small 
modifications were made to the 'divining rods' described above.  i)  they were coat-
hanger wires, and ii) they were placed in a 'handle' made of a plastic straw.  Thus the 
subject couldn't apply a torque directly to the wire(s), which swung freely in the 
straws..

A large electromagnet was excited by DC current in one direction, the other 
direction, or not at all, and students were recruited to try walking (while blindfolded) 
over the hidden magnet to see if the wires indicated the position of the magnet.  To 
avoid bias, the students and the observer were both blinded to the state of the magnet.  

Result:  no different from random guessing.  Some students couldn't get a "find" no 
matter what.  Others got "finds" which were not related to the presence or direction 
of the magnetic field.  Then, when they were taken out into the parking lot behind the 
lab, many of them correctly located sewer lines and water lines.

Go figger!

73,

George T Daughters, K6GT
CU in the California QSO Party (CQP)
October 2-3, 2010