When we had to have our sewer main replaced, the man came out with an underground pipe detector, and marked where he said the gas pipe and water pipe were. When the guy came out with the digger to uncover the sewer pipe, he found that the gas pipe was about six feet away from where it was marked as being located. Take care, even if you do find a suitable detector method.
If you can get to one end, and if it's under soil or whatever...
Get a mains transformer to produce some 'safe' AC voltage, say 48V or so. Connect one end to the pipe and the other via a long wire to one probe of a DVM on AC volts. Lay out a grid with string or whatever, then probe the ground with the other probe. Plot the measured voltages on a grid and draw the 'isovolt' lines. You should then be able to see the route of the pipe - the higher voltages should be closer to it.
Other buried metal will make this harder of course.
I can get to one end of the pipe.
I have a 110 volt transformer I could hook up, maybe best to do it when the neighbours arent washing up!
No need for a grid, if I measure points in a line at rough right angles to where I think the pipe is I can mark the point with the highest voltage [g]
Same here. 2 biro outers for the "anti-friction" handles and wire coat hanger. I think my brother got the idea form "HOW" and to test the accuracy I want out of the lounge and he placed a 2p randomly under the large lounge rug. Did it a number of times and as soon as I was over the coin the rods crossed.
That was the last time I tried it though.
I've also had interesting things happen when playing with a pendulum once, and they can be used over a map etc but my own experiment was limited.
Make sure no cows/horses in field
But then it might not work. I think if it works, it may be that certain people are attuned, possibly subconsciously, to certain subtle physical cues.
As one example, there's good evidence that some people have four colour receptors (tetrachromacy) rather than three, which may mean they can distinguish colour variations which most people can't see. Possibly the laying of a pipe, or the presence of buried iron, leaves some small colour difference in grass.
Or maybe it's simply something undiscovered.
Metal detector? Maybe you know somebody with one. What is the pipe? Lead? It should be possible to find it unless its too deep, otherwise I notice the water firms use ground penetrating radar, but that might be a bit expensive. As for your idea of feeding something down it electronically, not easy if its in earth, and probably old and corroded and with joins in it. A single frequency oscillator might be able to be picked up but its not going to be terrifically well defined and might vanish before the other end. Brian
From experience though dowsing is often quite wide ie its hard to detect it in a linear fashion. Those who do this reckon it works by distorting the electric field of the nerves in the hands. You will notice most dowsing devices are quite finely balanced in the hands so any slight movement change triggers a big shift.
I did not have much luck with pipes but could detect larger underwater things like sewers when I tried it with bent coathangers in my youth.
I still think some kind of metal detector might work better, though lead pipes are harder to detect than steel ones. Brian
Clive Arthur snipped-for-privacy@nowaytoday.co.uk> wrote
That really isn't a viable explanation when there can't be subtle physical cues.
That wouldn?t be hard to test by seeing if they can find a water supply pipe under the road.
More likely it doesn?t work and they actually are only good at predicting where the pipe would likely have been put.
It shouldn?t be hard to work out from maps where pipes have been put in very unusual situations and see if the dowser can actually find those.
That would still be a useful skill.
I suspect that there is a lot of charlatanism, but I'm also prepared to accept that there may be something in it which doesn't involve magic.
Clive Arthur snipped-for-privacy@nowaytoday.co.uk> wrote
Sure, but there is no point in playing silly buggers with bits of wire or a pendulum.
I'd want to see a proper double blind trial that shows its effective before I would believe it is a real effect, even with that predictive skill.
It has been proven that placebos do work with medicine, but they don?t work with say aircraft engines. Neither do the various silly stuff like christopher medals, lucky rabbits feet, praying to some god or other etc etc etc.
I'm not really going to play with 110 volts and a voltmeter!
Maybe dig carefully - I know where the stop tap is.
About dowsing : being able to smell out water would be a very useful skill in evolution for any lifeform, including us humans ...
george.
Not me, but I did partake of a Oui-Ja (spirit) board on a "Most Haunted Live" experience on the SS Great Britain 2 years ago. That was extremely enlightening. Not sure if other body spirits would be any use at finding buried pipes though, they're pretty useless on "Psychic Detectives" at finding where they were murdered whereas dowsing appears to come from "higher self" . :)
finding water is a survival skill. Animals manage it. Many people can smell it.
I would not be surprised if people have some way of knowing where it exists underground
Use the speaker outputs of an old audio amplifier playing music at volume and some sensitive headphones.
One leg of the amp to the pipe, the other to some distant point on your grid.
Tie one leg of your headphones to the pipe, go wandering with the the other leg probing the ground.
Might work?
Erm probably make that, Tie one leg of your headphones to the distant point.
No liability in this post for causing deafness :-)
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