Dye tracing S-Wales

J

Joel Corrigan

New member
Anyone know who the current go-to dye tracing gurus are in South Wales? I'm out of the loop as to who's who these days & could do with some advice from an expert....
 
nobrotson

nobrotson

Active member
Lou Maurice (BGS) and Tim Guildford (Oxford Uni) have done a lot in Draenen, and Lou is the BGS karst hydrogeology expert, so probably a good place to start. 
 
H

Huge

Well-known member
Roy Morgan has probably been the most active person with water tracing in South Wales for many years.  Unfortunately we haven't seen him at Brynmawr C C for quite a while now and we seem to have lost touch. Someone said that he may no longer be involved with caving. I hope that's not right.
 
Rhys

Rhys

Moderator
I was going to suggest Roy and Tony Donovan. They were doing stuff with optical brightener instead of dye.
 
M

mudman

Member
Rhys said:
I was going to suggest Roy and Tony Donovan. They were doing stuff with optical brightener instead of dye.
Click to expand...

Yes, Roy said he got in less trouble that way.  :-[

I know he did a lot of dye tracing and had a lot of interesting results. I was on at him to publish something. It might be time to get in contact with him again.
 
M

Minion

Member
Similarly, where does one learn how to dye trace?

Is it as simple as just tipping dye in a sink/stream and waiting for it to emerge from somewhere?

What about the use of activated charcoal and then extraction of dye from the charcoal? Is there an 'idiots guide'?
 
Wayland Smith

Wayland Smith

Active member
I think that "tipping dye into the watercourse"
will result in panic headlines in local press and a visit from the environmental people. :eek:

Probably better to use something not visible these days rather that a bucket of Fluorescein!  ;) ;)
 
pwhole

pwhole

Well-known member
You are supposed to inform the EA (in England) before any dye-testing, but they do allow it, as we did plenty in Castleton last year, but it was definitely at zero visibility levels, and John Gunn was supervising. I would definitely talk to someone who knows about it first. You'll need some pretty advanced kit to do the charcoal analysis.
 
droid

droid

Active member
Do people use Lycopodium spores any more?

Vaguely remember Bill Gascoign showing YUCPC how to do this. Picos?
 
J

JoW

Member
Minion said:
Similarly, where does one learn how to dye trace?

Is it as simple as just tipping dye in a sink/stream and waiting for it to emerge from somewhere?

What about the use of activated charcoal and then extraction of dye from the charcoal? Is there an 'idiots guide'?
Click to expand...

The BCRA run workshops from time to time, hopefully there'll be another one in the autumn... Watch this space  :)
 
Graigwen

Graigwen

Active member
droid said:
Do people use Lycopodium spores any more?

Vaguely remember Bill Gascoign showing YUCPC how to do this. Picos?
Click to expand...

Lycopodium spores are available from Baldwins* in the Walworth Road, Southwark. If you don't use them for water tracing you can eat them as some sort of  health food.


*My family have patronised Balwins since the mid nineteenth centruy. I can't speak about their Lycopodium spores, but they do sell a truly excellent Sarsaparilla.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top