Spanish Dip Needles - Miners Compass

Re: Spanish Dip Needles - Miner's Compass

An Ri Rua said:
Been enjoying all of the contributions here on this thread, from all. Wish all the threads could be this exploratory and collaborative.

Just won the bidding on an old one of these Aqua Locators. $40. Looks to be a bargain when compared against new.

I think its calibrated for Minnesota so that's about as North as it gets in the USA. Should help to give it better accuracy for me in Ireland.

Real de Tayopa, have you loaned it to people in other jurisdictions where they have retrieved successfully? I'm interested in how calibrated it needs to be, if you're way off course for where it was originally commissioned.

Any thoughts anyone?
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Well, I just took delivery of my antique Aqua Locator, shipped from Minnesota. In great condition. Some wear to the strap, but hey, its old ! I got some wear myself and I'm only half its age :laughing7:

Looking forward to any hints, tips, tricks, techniques and stories that any of you have regarding the acceptable and outer anecdotal limits of this device (not the aeroplane one though from Angel Falls :) Terrestrial anecdotes will do me fine).

Serial # 970452. I must check to see when that was made and for what jurisdiction it was calibrated for.
 

Re: Spanish Dip Needles - Miner's Compass

Good morning RI: No, I have never loaned it to another. As for any adjustment, mine has no data on that, or need for it, any more than an ordinary compass does except for declination to find true north.

The exception on a normal ocmpass is that as you go increasingly towards the poles, it tends to dip, losing it´s freedom of movement due to friction with it´s vertical pivot bearings.

In the case of this instrument, it has it´s pivots horisontally aligned, so it really makes no difference. I see no need for any adjustment except to keep it aligned with Mag north on all of your passes which can be from any direction.

Don Jose de La Mancha
 

Re: Spanish Dip Needles - Miner's Compass

Ri, if you're using it to look for magnetic anomalies then calibration is probably not necessary. You want to find magnetic deltas (distortions), not absolute field strengths. Also, latitude cannot be used to judge Earth field strength, it varies considerably all over.
 

Re: Spanish Dip Needles - Miner's Compass

Carl-NC said:
Ri, if you're using it to look for magnetic anomalies then calibration is probably not necessary. You want to find magnetic deltas (distortions), not absolute field strengths. Also, latitude cannot be used to judge Earth field strength, it varies considerably all over.
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Thanks Carl, appreciate the info and also starting to read up more about laptop-connected magnetometers, as you referred to earlier. But will try this baby for now. Its very discreet and well weighted too.
 

Re: Spanish Dip Needles - Miner's Compass

Real de Tayopa said:
Good morning RI: No, I have never loaned it to another. As for any adjustment, mine has no data on that, or need for it, any more than an ordinary compass does except for declination to find true north.

The exception on a normal ocmpass is that as you go increasingly towards the poles, it tends to dip, losing it´s freedom of movement due to friction with it´s vertical pivot bearings.

In the case of this instrument, it has it´s pivots horisontally aligned, so it really makes no difference. I see no need for any adjustment except to keep it aligned with Mag north on all of your passes which can be from any direction.

Don Jose de La Mancha
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Thanks Real, I just wanted to be sure. Gives me confidence in the instrument. Some of the highwaymen in Ireland used to bury their 'taxes' :laughing9: in metal pots. There's a lot of research and a lot of anecdotal evidence as to where some of those sites might be. Its been a research project of mine for 18 months now. A list of the likely lads is here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highwayman#Irish_highwaymen with plenty of good research of a quantitative and qualitative nature coming from http://www.amazon.com/Stand-Deliver-Stories-Irish-Highwaymen/dp/1856350363 and most impressively http://www.amazon.com/Irish-Highwaymen-Stephen-Dunford/dp/1903582024. Believe it or not, I have had two caches map dowsed from the ol US of A, by Art, describing exactly the way in which history describes they have been buried (and certain key signs), and neither caches' pertinent info would have been in any way readily available to that source. The terrain is tough though, in some cases, despite Ireland being a small place. Our bogs and mountains (and mountain bogs) are still fit to kill you if you're unprepared and foolhardy!

Back to the thread, I look forward to using the locator for searching and scoping out anomalies. We have an amazing geology in Ireland. Quite a mix. Plenty of gold, some iron, some coal, etc etc. A very varied landscape. The country was formed by two ancient continents colliding then separating IIRC. For years, we thought we had no gold. Now, it turns out its everywhere. And not just in the ore. Here's a gold rush I bet you never heard of! It 'may' have been where the young river uncovered an ancient stream bed. The source of the placer gold has still NOT been located (by the owners, that is). http://www.mineralsireland.ie/Mining+in+Ireland/Historic+Mining.htm
"The late 18th century also witnessed a local gold rush in Co. Wicklow. For six weeks in 1795, some 80kg of alluvial gold is estimated to have been recovered from what subsequently became known as the Gold Mines River. Following State intervention and dispersal of the gold diggers, mining was subsequently carried out by the Government (1796-1803), by the local populace (1804-39), and by a private company (1860). The total amount of gold recovered is calculated at some 300kg, although the true figure may be much higher." :headbang:
 

Re: Spanish Dip Needles - Miner's Compass

good afternoon RI: Being of predominently Irish Extraction, I am interested in your data - more. I have patiently been waiting for posts from you and Oro. Has ORO had any chance to try the aqua meter yet, or is he now located in Rio De Janeiro basking in the sun ogling the bikinis when Beth isn't around?

Don Jose de La mancha
 

Re: Spanish Dip Needles - Miner's Compass

Real de Tayopa said:
good afternoon RI: Being of predominently Irish Extraction, I am interested in your data - more. I have patiently been waiting for posts from you and Oro. Has ORO had any chance to try the aqua meter yet, or is he now located in Rio De Janeiro basking in the sun ogling the bikinis when Beth isn't around?

Don Jose de La mancha
Click to expand...

I hit gold in February and we're both on the beach right now, swapping treasure stories and drinking vodka martinis for breakfast.......

Actually no! The weather's been awful for Thunting or prospecting here. Would you believe, in wet misty old Ireland, we had 1-2" of snow yesterday, last day of March. And up in Elgin in Scotland, east of Inverness but on the coast, they had 4" of the stuff. Is God gone on holiday or on strike? What's up with the weather??

Hope to report back on the Aqua Locator shortly.

Interesting that you refer to me as Rí. Your Irish blood is coming through in spades :-D An Rí Rua means The King (Red). i.e. the red king. alias Ruairí. So you could have picked 'the' or 'red' but you picked King. And that was without notcing the gold and diamonds that adorn my persona. I'm like BA (Bosco Albert) Baracus with all of this fine jewellery :-D. Incidentally, if BA had come out white, he'd be called Bosco or Bertie, not BA. He'd be a big rough ape of a Paddy but not cool like BA. Like, does PJ sound cool like BA? Enough said :-D

When I get to the site of the Wicklow gold rush, I will report back more. Art has pointed me (map dowsed) to two locations of surfacing veins and, according to the topography of that area, I think he's bang on.
 

Re: Spanish Dip Needles - Miner's Compass

Hey Ruairi….When you get to the site of the Wicklow gold rush I wish you good luck. There is a lot of gold to be found by the lucky man who gets there first…Art
 

Re: Spanish Dip Needles - Miner's Compass

aarthrj3811 said:
Hey Ruairi….When you get to the site of the Wicklow gold rush I wish you good luck. There is a lot of gold to be found by the lucky man who gets there first…Art
Click to expand...

Hey Art, good to hear from ya. I've been off Tnet for a few weeks but will be back regularly shortly. Chat with you more via mail shortly.

And I'll send on your gold when I dig it.
 

Re: Spanish Dip Needles - Miner's Compass

Hey rockhound…I to have saw some drawings of some type of rod that was called a Spanish Dip Needle..There were four rods to a set. The tools were made of flat iron with a notch on each one. Two people were required to use them. When the rods turned and the notches matched it was where the gold was. I think I remember who had the drawings so I will try to contact him and see if I can get them…Art
 

Re: Spanish Dip Needles - Miner's Compass

Hey rockhound..This is all I could get..
Hi Art:

Yes, I was quite surprised when I ran across these a few years ago, going through a bunch of stuff in my shed. Surprised mainly because it was back in the 1940's when this guy came to visit dad with a set he had made. Afterwards I remember dad saying that he was going to make a set out of copper tubing and the coat the ends of the "forks" with Mercury.

I remember these as being maybe 7" or 8" long (maybe even shorter). Dad flattened the ends of the copper tubing and then probably used a file to make a simple "u" in the ends of these four tubes. Dad's reasoning was that Mercury attracts gold.

The trick was to balance these in your hands, opposite a partner with the u notches mating with your partner's. You held them loosely and sort of moved around in a circle. The theory being that any target would attract the needles to point in that direction.

The theory was also that the needles would criss-cross if you were over a target.

As I write this, why don’t you try coating the ends of some welding rods with Mercury? Dad held his "witness" in his left hand and the welding rod upright in his right hand. If a guy is left-handed I suppose the reverse would be the best way to go?

I used to see dad hold a variety of rocks and petrified wood too, (if I remember right) and these rods would really whip back n forth. At the time I thought it mighty strange as the source of some of these "witnesses" would be miles away!!

The most "factual" story I can give you is dad borrowing a rock / ore sample from the barbershop he went to in Wenatchee. Dad had a hunch the sample came from somewhere between Wenatchee and Blewett Pass. So he drove towards Blewett Pass and stopped every few miles to see what the welding rod would do. It kept whipping behind the town of Cashmere.

Dad drove as far as Ingalls Creek at the foot of the Pass and by this time the rod was pointing almost due east. So his "readings" had consistently pointed behind Cashmere in this semi-circle he had made.

Dad said the guy wasn't very happy that the barber let dad borrow his sample rock but admitted the rock DID come from behind Cashmere.

As I think you have an excellent "touch" with things like this, why don't you give the welding rods a try and let me know how it goes? As far as I know the welding rods dad used were just run-of-the-mill stock ones, maybe 1/16" or 1/8" or both?

Hope this helps a little.
 

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Can someone PLEASE tell me what we have here.... We have no idea what it really is. We did have someone tell us it may be a spanish dip needle...but we would like to be certain. Thanks!
Dawn
 

Commonly referred to in the South as a dangle compass. That is why the paydays and iron markers such as an axe head or a plow shear, horse shoe etc were buried at 12 inches. That is shallow enough for the dangle compass to pickup on. We have even found a beech tree with a dangle compass carved in it. Sometimes the piece of iron would be laid on top of the mason jar then covered back up with dirt. Every buried marker we have found has been right about 12 inches deep.
 

I am interested in more informationon the Aquq Locator, in my area I have a lot of flour gold in the soil, will the Aqua Locator pull to flour gold? If you will send me your phone number I will call you in reference to the Aqua Locator. Thanks, Pebble
 

Spanish dip needles

image.jpgI have 2 Spanish dip needles that belonged to my Great Grandfather. He used them in the early 1920's in northern Ca
I would like to sell them, 1,200.00 for both
 

Just curious why they load those with iron pyrite (fool's gold). You can hold a strong magnet to it (don't break the glass when the magnet pulls to it).
 

You should learn how to use one.
 

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