Rotten egg smell

[Speedbump]

After great consideration, I think I'll steer clear of discussing your "smell" method. As you are also performing quantitative analysis, I suppose no harm can come of it. Heck, like many geologists and drillers, I still use a couple of coat hangers to witch for buried lines even after the utilities have been marked. Works for me, although many remain skeptical.

Not me. When I was in my young twenties working for the County Road Commission surveying. I had a crew chief that was straight as an arrow. One day, we were supposed to lay out where a large (I believe 12") gas main was supposed to be located before widening a road. The as built drawings weren't available, so my crew chief went to the back of the pie wagon and got out two coat hangers that had been bent into L's. He put one in each hand with the longer part sticking straight out in front of him with no pressure on the metal other than to support their weight. He walked perpendicular to where the pipe was supposed to be and about ten feet past that point the hangers crossed. Naturally, the three of us crew men were scratching out heads. He gave them to me, said do down the road 100' and do the same. When they cross, drag your foot in the sand. Then the next guy another 100' down the road. All there scratches lined up perfectly and that was where the main was found.

I have used them many times since to find all kinds of buried pipes. It doesn't work on wells though. Wrong magnetic field.

 

[Terry]

I use the coat hanger trick to find pipes.

It will find plastic or metal pipes.

The city utility department has nice store bought witching "devices" on their trucks too. A little nicer then the bent coat hanger.

The store bought ones are ells with a handle with bearings so the end swings on it's own better.