Is water divining just mumbo-jumbo or does it really work?

AS AN environmental health officer in London, I used divining rods to estimate the size of underground objects. You could follow the line of a pipe until it branched, when the divining rod on that side would swing out. Those who can use rods only need to place a finger on them for them to work like magic. BRUCE COVA, Wittersham, Kent. Water divining is bunkum. there is no scientific evidence that it is any more effective than random chance. Utility companies’ engineers may think they are divining, but they are, in fact, using their professional knowledge and experience to work out the most likely course of a water or gas pipe. People remember the few times a hunch has proved right, not the times it didn’t work. M. SPRINGER, Reading, Berks. MY HUSBAND worked in a flower nursery in a 17thcentury walled garden

where the water pipes were old and there were frequent bursts. He could quickly find the damaged pipe using divining. One day he came to the school where I was teaching 12-year-olds. When he demonstrated water divining with wire coat hangers, everyone wanted to have a go. The first to try was a boy with learning difficulties and the hangers nearly jumped out of his hands. One by one, the others tried and all but four got a result. I could only manage a little twitch.

mrs BARBARA LAMB, heddon-on-the-Wall, northumberland.

I AM a civil engineer and I have not only seen water divining work, but I have tried it successfully. We had to lay a sewer to serve a new factory on the Wirral and knew there was a Welsh Water aqueduct crossing the field. Locating it was critical, so I arranged to meet a Welsh Water engineer on site. To my surprise, he picked up two metal welding rods bent at right angles and crossed the field, sleepwalking style, with the rods in front of him. Halfway across, they crossed each other. ‘It’s here,’ he said, putting a marker on the ground. I tried and the rods crossed with a surprising force. When we dug a trial hole, there was the aqueduct.

GreG Jones, neston, Wirral. AS A building contractor, my husband used divining on new sites to locate water mains. Two of our scientist friends were sceptical, so we tried an experiment. We placed a bucket of water in the middle of the living room and our blindfolded friends were given divining rods and told to find it. The rods, held between thumbs and forefingers, crossed as they reached the water. Removing their blindfolds, they couldn’t believe it. mrs rUth harris, Frimley, surrey.