DIVINATION.

Northern Advocate, 23 August 1924, Page 12 (Supplement)

DIVINATION.

REYEALER OF MYSTERIES. Recently, on a bleak hillside in a raining area, two experts of the South Kensington Science Museum have hi turn niu.de observations throughout the night of a remarkable instrument that has been devised in order to detect the presence beneath the earth's crust of minerals, oil, water, and tho many other valuable deposits that are hidden below the surface. The hazel twig of the water diviner is familiar to all, and there are still many who believe in it implicitly. This, however, was the first occasion when really scientific tests have been carried out in the field by qualified observers in England, and the results have been sufficient to justify the optimistic opinions held as to the instrument's capacity for accurate work that were mentioned when it was described last year in the "Morning Post."

The instrument is the Eotyos Torsion Balance, and although it is of foreign origin, one of the instruments used in these tests is of entirely British manufacture and was built in London. The object of the experiment was to ascertain the direction in which a "lode" or vein of metallic deposit extended upwards from a great depth, and to indicate at what particular

points future boring operations were likely to meet with the greatest success. All the calculations are not yot complete, but the engineers are satisfied that the instrument has justified the time spent in careful experiment, and sufficient evidence has been aeen-

mulated to warrant faith on its effici-

ency. These tests, made as stated on a steel slope under adverse conditions,

have also refuted the statement, hitli-

erto generally accepted, that such an instrument could not be used in a

mountainous region, and was only suitable for fable land. 'There are many methods cf gaining some idea of what lies hidden underground. Some depend upon electricity or electric-magnetic effects and others upon sound. None of these principles is applied in the case of the Torsion Balance, which is operated solely by

the force of gravity or the attraction

that is exerted by large bodies on smaller ones. Gravity is the force

that attracts all bodies towards th , . , centre of the earth and the pull it exerts varies in a. definite mathematical relation to the distance of the body from the centre of the earth, and even though the distance between two equal weights may only be the seemingly insignificant matter of 24

inches or so, it is possible to detect

the difference in the pull. The b:il- \ ance consists essentially of a beam

suspended by a delicate wire a little more than one-thousandth of an inch in diameter. To each end of the beam a gold weight is attached, but one is carried on the beam itself whi-e the other is suspended by a fine wire two feet long, and is therefore that distance nearer to the centre of the earth, and though both are equal the lower weight is acted upon by a slightly greater force than the upper. The presence or absence underground oir any material having a greater or less density than the normal soil affects the perfect balance of the beam and

I causes a twist or torsion of the iihiment suspending- it. This is magnified by a mirror carried on the filament, which reflects a spot of light or; to a scale, and thus the slightest disturbance in the delicate balance is rendered apparent to the observer, who must have the. skill necessary to interpret adequately the readings of the instrument. The vital parts of the instrument arc enclosed in tripl:?walled brass cases in order to protect them from temperature and electrical disturbances, and problems arising from the sun's radiation are overcome by using the instalment only at night. Not the least curious feature of the instrument is that, while it can detect a deposit of salt, oil, or ore, it is also sensitive to a hole or underground cave, and this is an accomplishment tlu't no other known method .affords. For example, a tomb such as Tutankhamen's would afford a clear indication that .the subsoil was not uniformly solid ground, and would thus suggest that, digging at a given : spot would probably result in something out of the ordinary being found, though it should be emphasised that the instrument is not intended to detect hidden treasure of its own accord, and can only give indications when placed over a site that the observers consider likely to yield fruitful results. In this, however, lies the real economy of the balance, for if thVre is nothing to be found it can prevent the useless expenditure of capital and labour by the expensive method of haphazard trial borings. It is for this specific reason that the recent field researches have been carried out, <md the engineers in charge con- | sider that they are amply repaid by the results obtained for their long spell of isolation far from railways ' or other disturbing influences. !