[SOC] Re: Water Dowser - was Amish Weather Stick

Hank Kohl K8DD [email protected]
Sat, 09 Mar 2002 21:45:08 -0500


Back in the late 40's / early 50's we knew a water dowser.  He did 
"contract" jobs for my Dad, who was the general foreman for a well drilling 
company.  This guy claimed that you had to have the letter W in the lines 
of your hand (with the thumb held up) to be able to find water with a "Y" 
stick.  I even saw him do it with a large pair of pliers - he couldn't hold 
them parallel to the ground - pulled them out of his hands.  As a 6 or 8 
year old kid I sure was impressed!

And as I remember, he didn't like to be called a water witch - even though 
it seemed like witchcraft to me.

73    Hank    K8DD


At 3/9/02 08:52 AM -0500, Bruce Shaw AG4NY wrote:
>Never thought too much about 'dousing' but a friend who is in the
>underground utility location business taught me how to find buried pipe with
>two bent coat hangers.  It is amazingly accurate.  Don't think it is
>magnetic because it works for plastic pipe and works with stainless steel
>'hangers'.
>He uses his electronic locator because people don't like to think they are
>paying his hourly rate for a guy with two bent coat hangers.  He does use
>the wires on occasion to verify the electronics.
>Now, don't you feel better knowing that?
>72
>Bruce
>ag4ny
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: George, W5YR <[email protected]>
>To: Rob Matherly <[email protected]>
>Cc: Flying Pigs <[email protected]>; SOC List <[email protected]>
>Sent: Saturday, March 09, 2002 12:32 AM
>Subject: Re: [fpqrp] Amish Weather Stick
>
>
> > Sounds a lot like the used by "water witchers" who claimed to be able to
> > find underground water by "dowsing." Some used wire rods or even bent coat
> > hangars . . .
> >
> > 73/72/oo, George W5YR - the Yellow Rose of Texas
> > Fairview, TX 30 mi NE of Dallas in Collin county EM13qe
> > Amateur Radio W5YR, in the 56th year and it just keeps getting better!
> > QRP-L 1373 NETXQRP 6 SOC 262 COG 8 FPQRP 404 TEN-X 11771 I-LINK 11735
> > Icom IC-756PRO #02121  Kachina 505 DSP  #91900556  Icom IC-765 #02437
> >
> > All outgoing email virus-checked by Norton Anti-Virus 2002
> >
> > Rob Matherly wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi All;
> > >
> > > In the midst of the first storm 'o the year, and was trying to remember
> > > something my Earth Science teacher used to have outside his window.  It
>was
> > > a green stick (no, not the color green) that had all it's bark removed.
> > > About 2 feet long, 1/4 at the base and 1/8 at the tip.  Basically a
>longish
> > > twig freshly snapped from an unsuspecting tree...
> > >
> > > Anyway, you stuck the thing outside, parallel to the ground.  If it
>pointed
> > > up, it meant one thing, and if it pointed down it meant another (no
> > > perverted jokes... ;^)).  Something in the weather changing caused one
>side
> > > of the stick to shrink, thus you could use it to indicate the weather.
> > > When the system passed, the stick returned to normal.  Something the
>Amish
> > > came up with.
> > >
> > > Here's the point of all this... what in the %#$^ was it the stick was
> > > supposed to point out?  Anyone know?  I think up meant rain if I
>remember
> > > correctly...
> > >
> > > And no, this isn't a crock of bs :^)  We observed the stick once a day
>for
> > > a month and graphed it compared to the weather.  It was never wrong.
> >
> > -To unsubscribe, mail to [email protected], msg: unsubscribe fpqrp-l -
> >
>
>_______________________________________________
>SOC mailing list
>[email protected]
>http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/soc