Is 'water witching' science?

Question

Almost every public utility provider in the US provides maintenance workers with a set of 'leak finder rods' http://www.pollardwater.com/pages_product/P816locator.asp for finding water leaks, pipes, buried plastic or metal pipes, cables, and so on.

These 'L Rods' ride behind the seats of the trucks until needed. Then you can observe city workers walking around with a pair of dowsing rods, finding what they're looking for.

The rods are just two telescoping antennae with elboes mounted on a swivel inside two bicycle grips.

When asked, workers will tell you they depend on them. Most don't know they're 'dowsing'. Many believe there's electronic circuitry inside. [There isn't]

Have public water works maintenance workers, like the Wright brothers, learned a new science the hard way while scientists again turn a blind eye in denial?

Is digging up sewer lines a better means of learning reality than studying science?

Answer 1

It would depend on who uses it & what it is used for.  I heard this method has been used back in the bible days.  Farmers would use this method to find water for wells.

Dowsing is the action of a person--called the dowser--using a rod, stick or other device--called a dowsing rod, dowsing stick, doodlebug (when used to locate oil) or divining rod--to locate such things as underground water, hidden metal, buried treasure, oil, lost persons or golf balls, etc. Since dowsing is not based upon any known scientific or empirical laws or forces of nature, it should be considered a type of divination and an example of magical thinking. The dowser tries to locate objects by occult means.

Map dowsers use a dowsing device, usually a pendulum, over maps to locate oil, minerals, persons, water, etc. However, the prototype of a dowser is the field dowser who walks around an area using a forked stick to locate underground water. When above water, the rod points downward. (Some dowsers use two rods. The rods cross when above water.) Various theories have been given as to what causes the rods to move: electromagnetic or other subtle geological forces, suggestion from others or from geophysical observations, ESP and other paranormal explanations, etc. Most skeptics accept the explanation of William Carpenter (1852). The rod moves due to involuntary motor behavior, which Carpenter dubbed ideomotor action.

Answer 2

As I answered in another question there is no established criteria for what constitutes a field of science.

Certainly one can be recognized by certain organizations of science as a legitimate field of science or scientific inquiry. However, this is mostly recognition by consensus not well defined objective criteria.

If you or anyone else believes that the inquiry is worthwhile and apply the methods of other established (recognized) science to that inquiry one could reasonably argue that it is science. Certainly dowsing is a technique and appears to be a useful tool (whatever the explanation).

I am not familiar with experimental efforts within the dowsing community to examine, refine, and test  dowsing techniques or look for theoretical based explanations (though there may well be past and current efforts of which I am unaware).

I am of the opinion that some science has lost something (and also gains have been made) when retreating into laboratories became the standard of scientific research.

I am pleased that some fields of social science (sociology, anthropology) do not lend themselves to this type of retreat from real world experiences. I believe that field work can still be valuable to our advancement of knowledge.

This is not to dismiss the wonderful work (like quantum physics) that require labs, controlled environments, and special equipment like super colliders.

Psi

Answer 3

I used to have a cabin in Maine.Everyone had wells and there were many drill companies.I noticed some used dowsing rods, some were sticks others looked like coat-hanger contraptions.Maine folk are apparently a thrifty lot.I noticed they usually hit water on the first try.I also noticed everyone had a working well for miles around.To me this meant that there was a vast aquifer.Anywhere you drill, there's water.I asked and was told there was.I asked why the dowsing rods?The answer was  a smile or shrug of the shoulders.Here's a few links from PBS.One even has the oft-quoted Ray Hyman.

Answer 4

If utility companies have bought these things, I wouldn't be surprised.  And it wouldn't be the first time that people were ripped off by the pioneers of some grand new pseudoscience or bogus technology.  This little bunko tool is only $36.95 a pop.  

Let's not forget the Reich Orgone Energy Accumulator fiasco/rip-off.  And homeopathy.  And, well, it's a pretty long list.  And you're right: if scientific people paid closer attention and took a more active part in the evaluation and publication of facts concerning these types of things, lots fewer people would be getting conned out of their money.

Answer 5

Well drillers use divining rods to detect water, saw one guy use coat hangers to do this eh said it worked on the magnetics fields, yes you can find water anywhere if you drill deep enough that is a fact but you don't drill 500 feet when 75 will do it is a fact that it works

Answer 6

There is a lot of anecdotal stories for water witching, since it seems so popular and apparently anybody can do it, or so is thought. A piece of property contains many clues about where one may find buried utilities, so these anecdotal tales don't seem very compelling, however. Further, whenever any dowser has been tested under controlled conditions, nothing of note happens. In addition, there isn't any valid, confirmed scientific theory for a mechanism by which these rods detect sewer lines, water, or anything else.

Based on this, I'd say no.

BTW, I liked the link you sent. I thought it was funny they named it "magnetomatic", since there is nothing magnetic about plastic, concrete or ceramic pipes. Water itself is not magnetic but very slightly diamagnetic, but to interact magnetically with water you'd need highly powerful magnets in almost direct contact. If you had that, you'd already know where the water is!

Answer 7

Obviously this proves  paranormal activity.

Answer 8

Since it's pretty nearly impossible to dig anywhere and NOT find water I'd have to say that water "witching" is nothing more than myth.

Answer 9

Its me again.  My father used dowsing rods.  I can use them too.  He used them to find where to build the house, and where the water was on the old homestead.  He also helped to find old sewer pipes for his friends, which were many.  I see quite a few people using this to find gold and stuff like ghosts,  but I only saw water from my fathers use.  For me its quite different.  Science?  That suggests repeated in a controlled environment.  Dowsing might be proved if there were to be a room.  Like a garage with a concrete floor.  Buried objects.  Testing several peoples magnetic fields.  Recording from above the movements of the rods and the human relative to the hidden objects.