Observations placeholder

Smith, Robert (ed.) / The Wisconsin engineer  Volume 69, Number 1 (October 1964)

It is very obvious to anyone who has seen a dowser in action,  that the rod actually moves. Therefore, .. the question should be, "Why does it move?" and  not "Does it move?". Mr. J. J. Grullemans (owner of the Wayside Gardens nursery in Ohio which is one of the largest and most famous nurseries in this country) had his property witched by Gross and Roberts and relates the following:

"….. some of the critics are inclined to believe that motion of the stick is due to involuntary muscular action. Henry (Gross) had mentioned at the time that an ordinary blade of grass would work quite satisfactorily in his hands. With that thought in mind, I cut two or three leaves of what is commonly known as ornamental or pampas grass. These leaves are three to four feet long, and very flexible and arching. I took one of these leaves, bent it in two and gave it to Henry to use. I would say that the legs of the 'V' were probably eighteen inches long.

Henry held the grass upright, pinching the ends between thumb and finger, and walked over one of the veins he had located. The moment he was at the right spot, the grass-blade, from a point about one and one-half or two inches above the thumb and finger, curved gracefully forward; then snapped straight down from the force of the pull. If his muscles had been working on the grass-blade, it would have bent at the points where it was held.

I had him repeat this three times with three different blades of pampas grass, and the results each time were exactly the same. Involuntary muscular action never could have done this trick unless muscular action can crawl two inches up a blade of grass!"