Humphrys: I found water on my farm with a coat hanger
DOWSING for water does work, John Humphrys has said, after he used it on his farm to find a broken pipe.
The BBC Radio 4 presenter said he “felt a force” when using the method, also known as water divining, to find a pipe which had been cut through by a plough.
The discussion, on the Today programme, followed the discovery earlier this week that engineers from most of the UK’S major water companies use the method to find leaks or broken pipes.
Ten of the 12 companies admitted on Twitter to using the method, which involves using rods which move when the user walks over underground water, after science blogger Sally Le Page began making inquiries.
Humphrys had previously hired a dowser to find a water source on his farm in west Wales, and was encouraged to try the method again when a ploughman suggested he use it to find the broken pipe, which had stopped the water supply to his house.
He said: “‘I brought in a dowser for that little farm I bought in Wales. The well had run dry and it needed a bore hole.
“He found a wonderful supply. Now OK, you could say that was a bit of luck and he knows the land and all that.
“However, a few years later… I brought in a man to plough the field above the house and the water stopped in the house.”
He said the man “handed me a bent coat hanger” and suggested he use it to find the cut pipe.
“I felt a total fool walking up and down this field. And then, kapow, the thing bent forward – I couldn’t stop it – I felt a force, I really did.
“And he dug down … and there was the cut pipe. I know it’s not science – but explain it.”
Speaking on Today, Prof Richard Wiseman from the University of Hertfordshire, an expert in the psychology of luck and the paranormal, said: “It’s a great example of you saying ‘OK, I did this thing and something surprising happened.’
“The question would be, how many people did that thing, something surprising didn’t happen, they didn’t find any water?”