Monday, November 07, 2016

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.

Tuesday, August 02, 2016

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.

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

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 WashEast 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:

Friday, June 03, 2016

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 

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Hot Mirrors

False color infrared image of 1759 British Fort at Crown Point, New York © 2015 by cfastie and reused under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.



I often get asked if the hot mirror should be removed from a digital camera to photograph auras. Digital cameras are as sensitive to near infrared radiation as they are to visible light, so ALL are fitted with an internal infrared blocking filter or hot mirror. If the hot mirror is removed the camera is HIGHLY UNLIKELY to photograph auras simply because it will flood with the full spectrum of infrared and we won't be able to see the infrared generated by buried metal. Removing the hot mirror does have an application for false color photography, which may show ground anomalies but this is very different to aura photography. For aura photography, what we are looking for is the older, lower specification digital camera, where the hot mirror is less efficient then the higher spec and more up to date camera and will allow enough infrared through to show an aura in the photograph.

 

I have invited treasure hunters and researchers to come forward with their tests on digital cameras for photographing auras but unfortunately I still have no reliable information on cameras other than Canon and Olympus, although recently I have seen some encouraging results from Nikon cameras.