Taking better aura pictures

People, animals, vehicles and metal structures (including part metal structures like steel reinforced concrete) produce auras as does a lot of sky, so keep these things out of your pictures as much as possible. The tunnel effect in the picture is a reflection of the inside of the lens, it can usually be removed by increasing the focal length (the 18-55 range on Canon kit lenses). Set the focal length below maximum if you can to avoid problems with auto-focussing.

Infrared photo enhancing

I use Arcsoft Photostudio 5.5, as originally supplied with the Canon camera, for enhancing my aura photos. I have managed to keep this running on PCs up to and including Windows 7, although it does flash up a compatibility issue message at start-up. I haven’t found that to be a problem as long as I don’t use the browser function on Photostudio’s toolbar. In the past I had been told that version 6.0 did not work but I was recently told that a newer version 6.x did work. We did a few tests and sure enough I could not tell the difference between enhancing performed on 5.5 and that on the newer version, which can be downloaded free from: http://arcsoft-photostudio.en.softonic.com/

The day I got my hands on a real gold bar

On a recent trip to London, my partner and I visited the Bank of England Museum. The signage wasn’t very clear, or perhaps I should have gone to Specsavers the opticians, and we actually ended up in the Bank of England itself at the first attempt. The security man, in pink frock coat and top hat, told us where to go and we found the museum entrance in Bartholomew Lane running off Threadneedle Street down one side of the Bank building.

The museum collections were interesting and varied, covering a range of objects related to the bank’s history since its founding in 1694. Coins and banknotes, as you would expect, plus books and documents, furniture, silver, paintings and statues. The part that fascinated me though was the 400 troy ounces 999.9 fine gold bullion bar that was held captive in a plexi-glass case but which allowed you to insert your hand to grasp and lift the bar a couple of inches. At approx. 21.5 kg or 27.5 lbs it is surprisingly heavy. The value of the bar flashes up on a screen in front of you: over £400.000/ $500,000 at today’s prices. Unfortunately I couldn’t figure out how to remove it from its case without anyone noticing!

Does anyone know how these treasure finding devices are used?

Victor Lewandowski writes: “I am having trouble finding information about the two treasure finding devices I have. I got them from my grandfather who used them probably sometime between 1900 and 1940 in Virginia USA.

They are 2 wood cylinders joined with brass chain. I was told they may contain mercury. From the picture you can see the end was drilled and filled with a heavy substance. I can't find much on these devices. They seem to be a combination of dowsing and pendulum

I tested with one pair in each hand over a sterling silver ring, there was no reaction/crossing. I think each pair may be a separate device. They look like they were constructed by the same craftsman.

I weighed both pair of devices. The wooden filled cylinder of each pair weighed the same. One pair had a weight of 2.4oz. for each cylinder; the other pair had a weight of 2.6oz. Another observation is that the cylinders of one pair had the same lengths but there was a difference of 0.5cm between the other pair of cylinders (they were the same weight though). The chain of one device is 11.5in. in length and the second is 15in.

I did some more examination of the devices. I used a Minelab metal detecting pinpointer to check if there is a metal substance in the wood cylinders. The pinpointer detected a metal substance in each of the four cylinders. A volume of mercury can be detected as a metal.

"Like all metal targets mercury will read lower or higher depending on the size of the puddle of mercury. Mercury is only a fair conductor of electricity and so will read lower than similar size masses of silver or copper. For all intents it can be treated as a gold range target." Steve Herschbach

The reasoning for the mercury in the cylinders was that there is a great affinity between gold and mercury. Historically mercury was used in mining to capture fine gold by forming an amalgam. Therefore I conclude that the builder of these devices thought that the mercury would move the cylinders towards a gold deposit. How to properly use the devices is baffling. Any help would be appreciated.”

I would add that a treasure hunting friend advised me to use mercury in an Earth Field Generator for locating gold. If anyone has any ideas at all on how these devices are or might be used, please email me and I will pass the information on to Victor.

Treasure of Charles I

Another major project of Jimmy Longton's was locating Charles I treasure in the Firth of Forth,Scotland. Almost everyone knows that Charles I, the only British Monarch to be executed by his subjects, lost his head but very few know that he also lost a vast treasure, not once, but twice! The second treasure was melted down by Cromwell and largely consisted of an expensive replacement for the first, lost when a ferry, The Blessing of Burntisland, sank in Scotland’s Firth of Forth in 1633. Jimmy located a definite wreck believed to be the ferry and some seventeenth century artefacts have been recovered from the site but diving conditions are extremely difficult and there have been no reports of treasure as yet.

King John's Treasure

Continuing Jimmy Longton's search for treasure... In 1216 King John's court - contained in several large wagons laden with royal regalia - was crossing the River Wellstream, now part of the Wash, East Anglia. They got caught by the tide and went down in the quicksand. Legend says the remains are still there - somewhere, beyond the range of metal detectors and ground penetrating radar. Another method is needed. Here two enterprising entrepreneurs, seeking to restore ancient English heritage, ask Jimmy to find the spot. Enjoy the three videos:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgmew8Pg1ag

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iIrk9JqOrY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99lJRXDqd2c

Jimmy Longton

It is my sad duty to report that my good friend, Britain’s foremost treasure dowser, James (Jimmy) Longton, passed away suddenly on 02 May 2015 at the age of 84 years. He was buried in the churchyard of his home village of Euxton, (pronounced Exton) Lancashire, UK, on 15 May 2015 following a service at Euxton Parish Church attended by around 200 family and friends, myself included. Rest in Peace, Jimmy.

I could relate many tales of Jimmy’s exploits but I’ll just stick to his main achievements in treasure dowsing for now. Jimmy’s major claim to fame is his part in the finding of the Viking (c. 930 AD) silver brooch hoard near Penrith, Cumbria, in 1989. The two largest (i.e. longest) thistle brooches in the picture were found in 1785 and 1830 (largest) in a field called silver field. Jimmy and his friend Gerald Carter located and investigated the field in 1989 and recovered five more brooches, which were subsequently declared Treasure Trove. The award was more than £40,000 GB Pounds ($60,000 US Dollars)...

The Penrith Hoard in the British Museum Copyright 2010 Ealdgyth and reused under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license