Dowsing Rods V's A Metal Detector A few years ago one of my farmers phoned me to ask if my metal detector could find a metal water pipe that was running under his field and up to his house.
I said "yes as long as its not too deep", I jumped into my car and drove to his farm to see whats what, he said he remembers laying it quite a few years ago and pointed to a field the other side of a small wood and bog, he said it runs down there through the wood and the bog and comes into this field somewhere and up to the house, but couldn't remember the exact line.
I asked him how deep it was, "ohhh it's not deep he said, only a couple of inches down".
I spent the next couple of hours slowly walking back and forth a large part of the field trying to locate it, but gave up in the end thinking I should have had it by now.
I went to see another detecting pal who's detector detects a bit deeper than mine and asked him if he'd come with me the next day and try it with his, he readily agreed.
We spent another couple of hours walking slowly back and forth the area, but again, no signals from a water pipe, a few coins maybe but no water pipe.
I thought this is strange as its only supposed to be a couple of inches deep.
not one to give up easily I done a bit of thinking to see if I can come up with another way of finding it, I remembered that when I was younger I was watching a water board man looking for a land drain running through a playing field, he was slowly walking along holding 2 pieces of stiff wire out in front of him, to my supprise at one point the wires crossed by themselves, wow, he said that's where it is. he dug down a bit and there was the drain, covered by small stones.
I just had to ask him for a go at that, blimey, real magic I thought. It worked for me too, I asked him about finding coins or rings, can it find them, he said yes, just hold a simular one in your hand when your divining, we tried it with a coin, and again they crossed when i walked over it.
This gave me an idea, anything is worth a try at this stage, so I went home and looked for some wire, I found some old fencing and cut 2 pieces from that and bent the one end down for a handle.
After a quick trial over as man holecover in the back garden I went back to the farm to try them out there.
I showed them to the farmer and his wife and explained how they are supposed to work, ohhh dear, they just laughed at the idea and thought I was going Cuckoo, "Are you expecting me to believe that load of mumbo jumbo he asked",
I said "well, lets just give it a try and see what happens hey".
I slowly walked back and forth over the same patch as before, and sure enough every now and then the wires would cross, I found a stone and placed it on the ground at the point of the first signal to mark it, when I received another signal I asked the farmer's wife to gather some stones which were lying about on the surface and place them at the point where my wires had crossed.
After a little while and quite a few signals the farmer appeared in front of his house, he shouted out ," Hey Alan, those stones are running in a straight line to the marker I have in the other field, I can see it from up here", he couldn't believe it, saying hey, there maybe something in this Mumbo Jumbo after all.
We went on to dig a couple of exploritary trenches about 8 to 10 inches deep, but he stopped me there, saying " No their not that deep, It can't be it, Never mind he said, thanks for trying anyhow".
A couple of days later he got a small digger in to dig small trenches to look for it, Luckily he started at the end of my line of stones, he found the pipe just a couple of inches deeper, and again in a couple of small trenches he dug along my line of stones.
He phoned me to exitedly tell me that I was spot on with my strange pieces of wire after all and just wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes.
So another satisfied farmer and another well pleased detectorist. Untill next time, keep thinking positive.
Alan
