I suggest you join in with or take over the Dan-yr-Ogof water depth telemetry project that I've been doing. I'm a busy person. There's an article here: https://linetop.co.uk/dyo/creg_j123.pdf The system got flooded and/or over-pressured in some mega floods last Sept and is still in the cave...

It's very good to see a new caving generation taking a serious look at this promising area of the Llangattock caves. I'm afraid mine ran out of steam here in the 1990s. So wishing them the very best in finding those 'passages measureless' which are surely there in an upwards direction.

As to making an el cheapo UV lamp for fieldwork, all you need is a UV LED and two AA batteries. I bought a pack of 10 UV LEDs, can't remember where now, but this kind of thing: https://store.brightcomponents.co.uk/product/10x-5mm-uv-purple-flat-top-ultra-bright-led-10-pieces/ That's a 10 pack...

Not exactly. I dripped some very dilute fluorescein on to the green-looking cotton bud for the purpose of the photo showing the UV effect on it. It's beyond any doubt that OB adsorbs on to cotton, and once its stuck on to the surfaces of the cotton fibres it stays there, but I'm not sure that...

Put the charcoal granules under test into dilute NaOH, a dash of isopropyl alcohol, then heat up and swill around. The green dye is released back into the liquid. It is then more easily noticed under UV light. Obviously you are going to wear some eye protection, aren't you. The OB method is...

If your potential connection is only a distance of 100 metres or so, then I would put no more than half a level teaspoon of the powder dissolved in a litre of water and pour it all in at one go. It might take half an hour to get to the destination. I'm not sure about the maths but remember...

Nope. What you had really was fluorescein. The powder itself is a rusty red colour, and so is a conc solution of it, definitely nothing green. The fluorescent green hue only develops at the very diluted stage.

I have heard that if you drink some then your pee turns fluorescent green as it is excreted un-metabolised. Could cause a stir in the gents or feminine equivalent. So it's best if you can arrange things to avoid any phone calls from the public about little green men from alien spacecraft etc...

You should buy fluorescein powder, not a solution of it. Make up the solution as needed. Toolstation sells the Screwfix product for £1 less: https://www.toolstation.com/drain-tracing-dye/p19855 A little goes a l-o-n-g way. I bought a 100g BDH bottle of lab-grade material "in the day" and I...

That will be great, thank you. Caving or mining clubs, or other groups generally with a recreational underground interest, do, of course, have to apply to Caving Wales (or Cambrian as it used to be) to become members, or have done so in the past and been accepted. BCA can't create regional...

Yes please. One doesn't see one's own mistakes! Whilst you're at it, can you fix anti-democractic and any others you can find.

The Cambrian Caving Council AGM last weekend voted to adopt the new modernised name "Caving Wales" for our organisation. This is "Ogofa Cymru" in Welsh. We've owned the caving.wales internet domain name for a while which redirects page requests to Cambrian's website hosted by the BCA. It will...

Personally I use a laboratory 250ml pyrex conical flask for swooshing salad dressing which has raised a few eyebrows when it arrives on the dinner table. Someone has offered me a supply of lycopodium so I feel a project is coming together.

Well, isn't that sad. Pretty much a confirmation that cave research is moribund. The late Bill Gascoigne was an expert with lycopodium, if not the prime mover in a caving context. Chemistry lecturer and cave explorer, brewing up different coloured spores in his lab to do simultaneous water...

Well, sort of. At recent AGMs we created the Recreational Mine Exploration Officer and Information Officer roles while at the same time abolishing the Legal & Insurance Officer role (since that's the BCA's job now) and wanting an elected Information Officer with an executive vote rather than...

The agenda and draft minutes of the previous AGM are now on the Cambrian website: http://www.cambriancavingcouncil.org.uk/events.html As notified to member clubs and bodies during the consultation exercise last summer and autumn, this is the AGM where there will be motions to change the name of...

That is right. A landowner would have to convince the court that s/he's incurred a financial loss or was suffering intolerable nuisance to pursue a CIVIL case against the trespassers concerned in order for the court to order appropriate compensation or injunct the particular trespasser(s) not...

Not sure how relevant the above comment is to this thread because aggravated trespass is the criminal version of trespass. Plain vanilla trespass is a civil matter between someone doing something - or even nothing at all - on someone else's land except being there, and it is not police matter...

What it means is that parking for the purpose of parking within 15 yards of a highway is not an offence, not something the police can engage with. The fact your parking in and of itself is not an offence doesn't over-ride other legislation, for example the right to camp (as in the case of...

No it isn't. See Road Traffic Act 1988 Section 34 (3).