Derek ^ wrote:

On Sat, 29 Jul 2006 00:24:29 +0100, Tony Polson
wrote:

I was a sceptic until I found underground services that no-one knew
existed and of which there were no clues of any kind.

Then I'm curious why you were looking for them at that particular
location, Tony.


I wasn't. I systematically covered the entire site.

The site was privately owned and there were no records of the
existence, let alone the locations of the majority of the services.
The few records available were grossly inaccurate - I found a water
pipe about 30 metres away from where the as-built drawings stated it
had been installed. Dowsing found its route within an accuracy of
half a metre or so.

I'm still sceptical. There are many false claims made for dowsing,
particularly when it comes to locating underground water supplies,
none more so than the current controversy in Jersey. The claims being
made there are patent nonsense. But dowsing seems to work for
locating buried services that are fairly close to the surface, such as
gas, electricity, water and telephone.

I have never trusted dowsing on its own; I have always used it to
decide where to dig trial holes (with great care) in order to
positively locate the services. Given the risk of death or serious
injury when live cables, gas and water mains are severed, it would be
extremely foolish to place blind trust in dowsing alone.

But it is definitely of positive help in deciding where to dig trial
holes, which is why so many people routinely use it, without fuss, and
without making any extravagant claims for the technique.