Nexus - 0227 - New Times Magazine-pages

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NEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCENEWSCIENCE tures of the terrain for the presence of underground streams and more advanced methods such as testing the soil's electrical resistance. But these methods turned out to be inef- ficient, so the project manager, Hans Schroter, decided to apply his dowsing skills to the problem. Schroter's success in pinpointing underground streams was so impressive that the German Association for Technical Co-operation (GTZ) agreed to sponsor a long-term investigation. Relying solely on a dowsing rod, Schroter identified 691 potential sites in Sri Lanka to drill for water. Six hundred and sixty-four—96 per cent of them—provided fresh running water. Prof. Betz says that conventional techniques would find water in about 30 to 50 per cent of boreholes. Prof. Betz says what was even more impressive was that the dowsers were able to predict the depth of the water source and estimate its yield and purity to within 10 or 20 per cent. Geologists still have no tech- nology for gauging the depth and volume of underground water. (Source: Carl Franklin, The European Magazine, 31 March - 6 April 1995) Netherlands, have been experimenting with sound waves to break up and wash out hydrocarbon droplets whose heavier frac- tions often stay trapped between grains of soil, even with in situ cleaning techniques. The researchers set up two columns of wet sand contaminated with diesel fuel and passed sound waves through one of the columns at a number of frequencies. They then compared the amount of oil that could be removed from each by pumping through the two sandbeds until no more oil emerged. After five days, 71 per cent of the diesel fuel was removed from the vibrated column, compared with 40 per cent in 11 days from the untreated column. The sound waves make the oil drops vibrate at their natural frequency until they disintegrate into smaller droplets which can escape more easily from the capillary forces in the soil. The range of molecules recovered from the vibrating sandbed corresponded to the normal composition of diesel oil, with hydrocarbon chains ranging from 10 to 40 carbon atoms long. So, the water was indeed washing out longer molecules than usual, rather than simply removing more of the shorter, more soluble compounds. Weytingh also noted that high-frequency vibrations tend to be damped by soil and groundwater, and so work only over a lim- ited distance. Sound at too low a frequency can compress the soil, causing it to subside. (Source: New Scientist, 3 June 1995) warm superconductors and magnets can be fortuitous. The excess power in my motor is in some measure extracting heat from the barium ferrite magnets, and as I am collab- orating with Robert Adams it is appropriate to bring this news into the NEXUS reader- ship forum. This is, incidentally, not technology but science, yet science which tells us that the ‘new energy’ dream of power generation from environmental heat is already with us—but we have somehow ignored Nature's message. Readers may find my recently published (May 1995) GB Patent Application No. 2,283,361 enlightening as a way forward towards this new technology. It is entitled, "Refrigeration and Electrical Power Generation" and relates to a solid-state pro- ject which complements my motor research. Should these comments interest an estab- lished R&D organisation based in Australia I invite contact with a view to developing and exploiting in Australia my earlier and related Australian Patent No. 622,239. Enquiries in writing should be sent to me c/o Sabberton Publications, PO Box 35, Southampton S016 7RB, England, UK. pea WU Fata) seeps Wane SOUND WAVES vs POLLUTION STUDY PROVES DOWSING Petrol station oil spills could soon be WORKS cleaned up more easily using sound waves. The ancient and mysterious art of dows- Koen Weytingh and his colleagues at the ing could be a more efficient method of Technical University of Delft and De finding water than anything modern sci- Ruiter Milieutechnologie in Halfweg, the ence has to offer. German scientists followed the instruc- tions of experienced dowsers and drilled a total of 2,000 boreholes in 10 different PUREE DOWSING SERV] countries. Their 80 per cent success rate in — striking water was almost double the best as See PX USS achieved by conventional geological tech- ENV niques according to the study's author, ie Ze ie Hans-Dieter Betz, a Professor of Physics at Z. the University of Munich, Germany. i \ ae . - BP The team claim to have scientific proof 4% J) = IES ey that dowsing works. They have just pub- lished the results of their 10-year study in the Journal of Scientific Exploration which specialises in publishing studies of strange phenomena. Although Betz is puzzled how the technique works, he argues that dows- ing should be accepted by scientists and studied further. Betz's study started 10 years ago after German engineers working in the northem, dry regions of Sri Lanka began to use dowsing to decide where to drill. At first the team used conventional tech- niques to find water—interpreting the fea- - ee Se. ye faze in il oN ee se PUREE DEWOING SERVICE NEXUS © 55 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 1995 -