Nexus - 0304 - New Times Magazine-pages

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an instrument can only increase the reliability of their prognoses and their very ability to furnish geology, engi- neering and industry with thenceforth uncontestable and uncontested data. “Has the telescope destroyed the astronomers? The stethoscope or anti- sepsis the physicians? The automatic calculator the mathematicians?" Bickel has developed two closely related models of his instrument. The “Algor Alpha", specially designed for the detection of ore bodies and mineralised zones, can be modified for water-finding. The other, “Algor Explorer X", with the same basic Author Christopher Bird (left), holding dowsing rod, listens for auditory signal as specifications as its relative, is adapted for Dr Z. V. Harvalik turns tube mounted atop tripod. (Photo by Lois Pengelly.) geological study and exploration because it can register any geological fault system or structural change and is therefore useful in checking ground formations prior to build- ing or road construction. Bickel is presently working on a new machine, the "Explorer X100", which, using a three-inch caesium-antimony photomulti- plier tube with a sapphire window and a doped lithium-germanium crystal, will be able to record the whole spectrum of iso- topes of precious metals through the use of portedly to improve or enhance the art of dowsing while at the same time seeming to heighten its scientific credibility, Remarkably, not a few of them have managed to win the acceptance of patent examiners. Invented by Svatopluk Tabara of Lutin, Czechoslovakia, the device consists of a metal tube 5 mm in diameter and at least 150 mm long. The tube is closed at one end with a metal plug with a 0.2 mm hole pierced through its centre; at the other end with a similar plug to which a stethoscope is attached. A metal sleeve around the tube allows it to be mounted on a goniometer (angle-measuring device) fixed atop a surveyor's tripod. It is claimed that by ; - turning the tube while holding the dowsing rod at the ready, and with the Se RCL stethoscope plugged into the ears, a dowser will obtain a signal only if standing RR ORR acoustical waves originating from a water vein reach the tube when it is aligned De perpendicularly to them. The method is supposed to allow the precise delin- dow' built into the instrument whenever ATi a RUA meno ae nT noe oe considerable quantities of it are indicated Dr Harvalik, shown here rotating the tube while the author manipulates the underground fam rod, comments: "This is the first document | have seen in which it is claimed bbe eee heehee |!)21 a dowsing signal can also be acoustically perceived. The search tube would [Note: The above article is reprinted [RM iro mUmenstiite men |iihim (ly electromagnetic waves converted in the Tee CERRO MCE tube into sonic waves (compressions and expansions of air). If the tube cavity book, The Divining Hand: The 500- QYUWSUITORGR Toes oem en ierin Mime tema rCls FTO Mg Oe ae for sonic waves, but this does not appear to be the case because the patent reads lished in a newly updated edition by [RRURUTAIUTMe TM osm Udi Ce nae CTU Me Naim eC Mncmucctomm clude that the gimmick is simply another programming device, a means to allow Te instrument pictured above is one of the many contraptions devised pur- Atglen, PA, USA.] dowsers to focus their attention on the problem at hand." OBITUARY: CHRISTOPHER BIRD acquittal of Canadian biologist Gaston Naessens Rand, and later headed the Washington, DC, ; (1928-1996) over his unorthodox:cancer research. At the office of the Rand Corporation. In 1966 he _ Christopher Bird, best-selling author, natural- time of his death, Mr Bird was completing a became a foreign correspondent for Time maga- Fist, humanitarian and researcher of anomalous — book on water. zine in Yugoslavia. Upon returning from [phenomena and science, died of a stroke suf- Mr Bird, scion of one of Massachusetts’ old- Yugoslavia in 1968, he met Mr Tompkins, who Soees i . oe isc Georgia, On est families, attended Milton Academy and played a prominent role in the OSS during Mr re as teieenows book, The Sccret-Life Harvard College, where he took a degree in World War Il and who was also a linguist and of Plants, which he co-authored with Peter Botany with a minor in Chinese. He was fluent writer. Common backgrounds and shared inter- Tompkins, became a long-running best-seller, Russian, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese ests led first to friendship and, then, their and wae seaustated into 15 languages. It was fol. 4nd Serbo-Croatian. After leaving Harvard, he decades-long collaboration which included lowed in 1979 by The Divining Hand recop- WAS awarded a Masters Degree in Eastern extensive research on the life and work of mised ae'the debinttive book-ois the anceat prac- European Studies from American University in Wilhelm Reich. tice and history of dowsing, and, in 199], by Washington, DC. Christopher Bird is survived by his wife Secrets of the Soil, also co-authored with Peter Tn 1952, Mr Bird was recruited by the Central Shabari, and four daughters, Kristina, Lehua, Tompkins, His experience of being attacked, Intelligence Agency and sent to Japan. After Doina and Zvia, from his first marriage; a step- often in highly personal tones, by mainstream leaving the CIA, he volunteered for the Army son, Tim Bunge, from his second marriage; and science led Mr Bird to spend the later years. of where, in 1955, he was one of the first 50 three stepchildren, Hope, Gabriel and Jeremiah his life exploring the question of how science | American soldiers sent to Vietnam as part of an Cymerman from his third marriage. A delayed deals with the apparently anomalous. elite Special Forces unit, Mr Bird then went to memorial service is being planned for late In 1993 he wrote The Trial and Persecution work for the Rand Corporation in Santa Monica, August to allow family members and friends to fof Gaston Naessens, concerning the trial and California, as the Special Assistant to James attend. =| an instrument can only increase the reliability of their prognoses and their very ability to furnish geology, engi- neering and industry with thenceforth uncontestable and uncontested data. "Has the telescope destroyed the astronomers? The stethoscope or anti- sepsis the physicians? The automatic calculator the mathematicians?" JUNE-JULY 1996 NEXUS ¢ 41