Before anyone laughs at this, apparently it was widely practiced and enjoyed considerable success !

In 1556 Georgius Agricola published De Re Metallica, a book whose illustrations showed dowsers looking for veins of metal using a forked stick that Agricola referred to as a Virgula Furcate. In Seventeenth Century France, dowsing became popular, with Baron and Baroness de Beausoleil establishing a mineral mining company using dowsing to search for new potential mines. However, the art remained mystical, and was condemned by the Catholic Church as it was believed that the Devil controlled the movement of pendulums, leading them to hidden objects. The de Beausoleils ended their lives in the Bastille after revealing their use of alchemy.

Dowsing enjoyed a revival under the Victorians, perhaps owing to their interest in the occult and unknown. It is thought to have been popularised by German miners who arrived in Cornwall and located veins of tin which resulted in the creation of mines.

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