Recounting
events in 1663, Thomas Birch noted the Royal Society of London’s short-lived
interest in divining rods/virgula divina:
The virgula divina was ordered to be tried
at the next meeting, Mr BOYLE and Mr. BRERETON affirming to have seen it
succeed in the hands of others, though theirs were not so lucky as to have that
effect performed by them. The operator was ordered to desire the apparatus from
Mr. BRERETON, to be tried both by the naked hand, and after the way practiced
by GABRIEL PLATT, printed in his treatise, intituled, A Discovery of
Subterraneal treasures, p. 12.
Mr BOYLE was again desired to speak with the
artist about the method of softening wood, and hardening it again.
Sir ROBERT MORAY related that an old watch, when
to be mended, was found to have the steel so hard, that it could not be filed,
either before it was heated, or after it was cooled again, but only whilst it
was red hot. . . .
The virgula divina was tried, but by
unlucky hands. It was ordered to be tried again with shoots of one year's
growth, and after GABRIEL PLATT's method, trying the end of the hazel to a
staff in the middle with a strong thread, so that it hang even, like the beam
of a balance. (Thomas Birch, The
History of the Royal Society of London for Improving of Natural Knowledge, From
Its Frist Rise [London: A. Millar, 1756], 1:231-32, 234)
