More on brick lined hand dug wells.

[farmerjohn]

I was reading the post below and was fascinated with how they lined dug wells with brick starting at the top as it was dug. I got to thinking, maybe a dumb question, but when the brick was laid, did they use mortar, if so, how did the water get in? And I suppose this could be done only in certain kinds of soils? At my homestead there are three wells, 8, 10, and 15 feet deep, which is quite shallow compared to the 35 feet plus mentioned below, again I suppose depending on the soil and geography. Ours are rock lined, never have seen a brick lined one around here.

Also not a lot said about finding water before the digging started--water witching. I can't do it but believe it works. What is the consensus of others, how many do it? I don't think I would put the work in digging without knowing I will find water.

When I was a kid Grandpa told me a story of someone down the road digging a well, they quit for lunch and when returning went down in to work and slumped over. Those up top thought he got sick and someone went down to help and also slumped over. They then realized that gas had accumulated over lunch, another fellow wrapped his face with a funnel connected to a hose and kept the end at the surface to go down and get them out, both dead.

 

[RESLLS]

Dowsing I believe works for some people. I know two that can. I can't, I have tried with their guidance. I had a well drilled WO some years ago. First hole to 180 feet, no water. They quit pulled everything out. Called the owner of the company, is yr old. Came over with two pair of rods. One set aluminum, the other brass. Said the brass was for pipe underground and the aluminum was for water. Both sets were L shaped. Walked around and told them to drill 3' from where they were. Water at sixty feet. They arqued but finally gave in. Old guy told me to try, didn't work. Wife tried and hit same spot S him without knowing where he marked. She also marked on a couple other spots that he got the same result on. Though one spot she found he said by the feel was a wire. A year or so later called cable co to install. They called missdig. Spot was a phone line.

 

[Dick2]

Mom told the story of their neighbor who dug his own well. He went down in the well and had his mildly retarded BIL Hector pull up the ladder so he had room to dig.

Hector was supposed to pull up the buckets of dirt and empty them. However Hector's attention span was short so he wandered off and forgot about the guy in the well. Several hours later his wife missed him and found him in the well unable to climb out without a ladder. Owner hired help to finish the well; wouldn't go back down into the hole himself!

 

[Steve@Advance]

I've used the dowsing trick to locate underground pipes. Can't explain how it works, and it doesn't always work...

I used 2 pieces of copper wire or 1/4" copper tubing, about 18" long, bent 90* in the middle. Put each piece in a glass Coke bottle, hold them about a foot apart, tilted slightly forward so they point straight ahead. As you walk across the suspected location of the underground pipe, the copper pieces will cross.

When I've used it, I was locating a steel water pipe. I've heard it will work on any type underground utility, PVC, tile, wire, anything that "disturbs the magnetic field" is supposedly the theory behind it.

 

[gwece]

I can remember my dad telling me a story about two brothers digging a well for a farmer here in southern Illinois back in the 1950's. The guys were not known as BS'ers. They story was they dug down about 30 feet an hit a layer of sandstone. They said the sound of running water under the sandstone was very loud & referred to it as an "underground river". They were afraid to break through the sandstone and filled the well back up.
As a kid I can remember thinking about the possibility of those guys breaking through the rock and disappearing into a cave or into a big stream of water.

 

[Texasmark1]

Copper is non magnetic basically. You need Ferrous materials for that. However it is an excellent electrical current conductor and when moved through a magnetic field, or a moving magnetic field in close proximity, it will develop an electrical current proportional to the stimulus. That's how magnetos work; aka the Faraday effect and Maxwell's equations physics. Transformers do it too except the magnetic field is produced by an electric current and then coupled to the other side; primary to secondary or vice versa. Works in both directions.

Around here the "insiders" ones born and raised here, used a couple of iron rods, aka #3 rebar bent at a right angle so that you could hold them in your hand yet the ends were horizontal and parallel.

Same senario. Rods parallel, walk the walk, when the rods crossed you were over "water" they said. I watched a couple of "pros" in the act watching for finger movement.....aka simulating water when there was none. Can't comment either way on did they cheat or not. But found no water where they said it was.

I thought it was all a bunch of malarky.

Mark

 

[Texasmark1]

They are all over around here and were called cisterns as any water for an actual well was way down. Even at 250' wells were seasonal. Community wells are at least 1800' deep.

So they built cisterns and collected rain water off their roofs. That was about it. Not very good if you ask me but that's all they had.

Mark

 

[fixerupper]

For me one bent rod works just as well as two when I witch. The interesting thing is if I use one rod it always crosses my body when it turns, meaning it never turns out away from my body. Why is that? I've used any steel wire that's handy but I can't predict what's down there.

 

[CGID]

My Dad told me he tried witching - once. He used witch hazel. He told me no matter how hard he gripped the branch he could not prevent it from twisting. It frightened him so much he never tried it again.

 

[Deere54]

I have an old hand-dug well 40 feet deep, 3 feet across, laid-up stone, no mortar.

 

[PJH]

Witching works for some, but not for me. My 8 year old son (now 46) located our water line when I had him walk slowly across the yard holding the rods.

And a local funeral director has an unbelievable ability to not only locate bodies in a cemetery, but to tell you whether they are male or female. She has been "tested" many times, and always wins the test. Many of our old cemeteries aren't laid out in lots, and many graves are un-marked, so she double checks before digging, to see if the spot is already occupied.

I still can't wrap my mind around the idea of laying brick on top of a steel ring and letting the whole apparatus slide downward as you dug under/around it. That sounds like a disaster in the making. This was long before hardhats had been thought of.

There are many rock lined wells around here, using small flat rocks like you'd find in the local creeks. Some brick lined cisterns, but I don't remember seeing any brick lined wells. Might be a regional thing - there were a couple of brick plants in the area long ago, but creek rocks were free.

 

[paul]

I don't understand water witching.

I'm told it will find water under you (here we are too wet, there is always water under you, some shallow veins, but always at 230+ feet there is always ground water). So, the stick or wire will of course, always, point to water, just has to dip down and yup..... Our trouble is finding a sand field good enough to pull the water out of, can't get water out of clay or very fine sugar sand very well. Now, if you can witch for good course sand, then you would be worth something!

So, how does it work? We don't know everything, but eh, there has to be a reason for it to work?

Then, I'm told it works to find water pipes and even electric lines.

Well, then - how can I tell if you are finding water pipe, water vein, or electric line for me, are the sticks or wires programmable to look for what I want that day? I don't see the USB port on them.

Just can't make anything of it at this time?

Paul

 

[MichiganMike]

My great-uncle witched our well 40+ years ago. It is the best water ever. every one around me has the same nasty water 150-180 ft down. mine is a shallow well a little more than 15 ft. The best thing other than the water, is my well is in my house! don't have to worry about freezing pipes or freezing while working on it. remove the plywood cover in the basement hallway 3x4ft 4 ft deep pit pump is right there out of the elements . well never has went dry only problem about 7 yrs ago had to pull the well, point was blocked. replaced piping/well point. Put a piece of double back 4 inch channel 10 ft long, above steel beam at on end and concrete wall at the other end. was able to pull well and drive new pipe using it as over head rigger. was so handy it found a new home instead of the steel pile. I left it right there just in case it is needed again. MTP...P>S I guess it's a spring but strong flowing and sweet.

 

[Bill in IL]

I have 3 dug wells on the place. All about 30 foot deep. Two are lined with limestone rock and no mortar. One is lined with red brick an no mortar.

 

[moresmoke]

At the risk of over simplifying something I don't understand that well, dowsing (or witching) relys on being able to sense the powers that be in nature. It doesn't matter what is used for the rods, they just amplify the movement of your hands. Ive even seen it done with a plumb Bob. You just need to concentrate on what you are trying to find. It works best if you cross an area in one direction, then return from the opposite, as an indication may not be directly below you, but you can average to point from walking in opposite directions. I'm not very good at water, do half decent with pipes and wires, but I have excellent luck finding septic tanks???

I had a well drilled a number of years ago, had a friend dowse it for me. He flagged a spot, said there would be 20GPM at 85 ft. The plumbing inspector, the well driller, and others thought the well should be in a different spot. Got the driller set up there, started drilling, this was in bedrock after 4 feet. He started poking fun when at 75 ft, there was only 2 GPM. At 82 feet he hit a hard spot in the rock. 6 inches later he broke through into a cavity that would run 24GPM. So my friend wasn't quite on, but pretty darn close.

 

[Tom in Ga]

I use copper wires to locate wire and pipe. I have located a lot of phone lines with wire. But I have dug empty holes too. Also when trying to find underground stuff always look up because they will pick up overhead wires as well. Nothing is foolproof but this will give a pretty good indication when you cross wire or pipe. Tommy

 

[Mel in SW Iowa]

The farm in SW Iowa I was raised on had an 80+ foot hand dug well that was lined with unmortared brick, no mortar. Glad I never had to go down in it.

 

[teddy52food]

Back when I could walk I used one heavy wire too, pointed ahead. Crossing a vein would turn it in the direction the water was flowing. The guy that showed me how said he found many springs by following the rod.

 

[keh]

Rock lined well on family place, had the world's best tasting water. One day the rock walls fell in, loudly. Daddy had been trying to get out a stuck well bucket and snagged a rock.

He got 2 men to dig a new well. I was a small boy and watched. The well was going to be lined at the water level with 3 foot concrete pipe, so the men drew an appropriate sized circle on the dirt and started digging. No dowsing involved AFIK.Used mattocks and shovels and threw the dirt out the top as long as possible. Then the set up X braces and laid a pole with handles at each end set in opposite directions. Steel cable on windlass pole with 30 or so steel barrel on end of cable. One man in well would dig and load bucket. Man on top would crank bucket to top, then empty it to one side. He got me, maybe 10 years old at the time, to hold one handle up at the top of the strike. He would run quickly around and grab the bucket, then shout for me to release the handle. I was scared of letting the handle which was heavy to hold loose and dropping the bucket of dirt down on the man in the well, but I made it through. I asked the man what they would have done if I hadn'been there to hold the handle and he said he would cranke the bucket as high as possible and run around and grab it before it fell in the well. Ok I guess, but I didn't see it done.

After each day's digging, they mixed cement and plastered the walls to keep them from caving in. At the top there was red clay which wasn't going to cave in, but further in was yellowish soil locally called well dirt which is looser. Anyway, it didn't cave in. They did not hit rock which would have had to be drilled and dynamited. My FIL at Tryon, NC, had to dig a well through a lot of granite using the dril and shoot method.

After they hit water at 50 feet and couldn't dig anymore they ordered 3 or 4 3 foot diameter concrete pipes. The delivery truck had a crane with a special catch which held the pipes until they were lowered in place and then released the catch.

One of the men said he would not go down in a rock lined well for any amount of money. He was down in one once and was being drawn up in the bucket when the bucket swung over and hit a rock, causing all the walls to fall in. He could look down and see the rocks falling in place below him, but they kept cranking and he made it to the top. I've never been in a well and plan never to be in one.

No poison gas in wells in this area AFIK.

KEH

 

[Hoenes]

My dad once told me that they would always lower a lantern down in the (empty) cistern before they would go down the ladder to clean it out. If the flame went out, no go!

 

[notjustair]

I've witched all of the water lines and such for folks around here. I wanted to drill a well and mom said she would try. I got two pieces of ground wire from Romex about 18 inches long. I bent a 90 degree angle in the middle. She walked around and those things crossed. I knew she was right over the rural water line but she didn't. I decided I had to try. It is the most bizarre thing. When those two wires want to swing towards each other there's no way you can stop them. They won't cross over each other until they are right over the line or water. Witchy or not, it works for me and mom.