Are Dowsers Dupes?
During a discussion of the drought the other day—and recent rains have hardly bettered our case—an eminent physicist gave me an account of a trial to which he and another F.R.S. subjected a water dowser or diviner, who had complained that science would not test the diviner's efficacy. In a series of tests, concerning both metal and water, the fork— in this case of metal, not hazel—completely failed. Now, of late I have met a number of ardent believers. The best architect and the best well-borer I know both make use of this detective agency, and arc firm believers. Under their encour- agement I made personal trial and found that the hazel fork twisted on itself with such force that the skin of my thumbs was pulled violently enough to hurt. The trouble was that the twisting seemed to me to have no connexion with either water or metal. It depended on whether I raised the point of the stick from which the fork emerged up or down. If I did either the mechanical force -became too strong for my grip to resist. What I want to know from some scientific engineer. is
the nature of the strain set up by the peculiar grip of the fork.
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