I was also skeptical of the so called water withces...Until this morning.... I watched with amazement when a city employee pulled up if front of my business to mark waterlines for excavation. He pulled out two l shaped wires about 18 inches long on the long side and about 5 inches on the short side, and began walking through the parking lot. He held the wires up about chest high and out infront of him and very lightly. As he walked the wires would cross, he would stop and spray a bit of paint on the ground. He did this several times until he could see a line and then he marked it as a water line. I was inside laughing hard, because I knew they had machines to detect water pipes. So I went out to ask him why he was using the rods. He said that it was faster and easier than using the machine. He also said that many of the building and water contractors in the area use this method. I asked if I could try it. I tried it and was amazed! It really worked. I claim to have no special powers or anything bizzar, but I saw it work. I went home and fashioned two rods. I talked first with a fellow employee raised on a farm and he said they did it all the time. He also said that if I put the small end of the rods into drinking straws that I wouldn't hold the wires too tight, thus preventing the natural action. At home I used the rods where I knew the water line crossed, and the rods indicated the direction of the line. I walked around my cul-de-sac, in the street and could see the wires cross every time I crossed a waterline stub from the main. I went back to work on a larger road and held the rods and every time the rods began to move I could see where a fire hydrent was stubbed out from the main. I even crossed a road where I knew there was a 12 inch water main and the rods deflected.

I don't claim to know how this works, but it did, my son tried it, my coworkers tried it and it worked. I do not know about finding lakes underground streams, fresh, salt water, and the type of geological strata, but this method found water lines. I even set out a gallon bottle of water on the ground where I knew there was no other water, and as I crossed over the water bottle the wires deflected. I could not have squeezed the wires or deflected them in any way and it worked.

There must be some science behind this... I have to know that science. There is no logical explaination to me until I can prove it through good science, but it does work. I can undersatnd magnetics and water disrupting the earths magnetics and having an effect on the wires, but I have heard of those who use wood sticks to do this. I will try with that, but have less faith that it works that way. I will be even more suprised if it does.

But for finding burried waterlines I believe it. I used the same technique over my underground powerlines with no deflection, but did find that the underground phone lines caused a similar reaction to the water. Maybe it has to do with small voltages creating magnetic fields on the waterlines, as many here use the waterlines as a ground for house electricity.

I have been in the field of electronics and computers for over 27 years and cannot explain it other than what I did was real....