Re: water as spark gap dielectric

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Mark Fergerson by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <mfergerson1-at-cox-dot-net>

Tesla list wrote:
>Original poster: "Mccauley, Daniel H by way of Terry Fritz 
><teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <daniel.h.mccauley-at-lmco-dot-com>

>What type of material were they using for electrodes????
>They may have been using some type of exotic metal.  I think that during
>heavy current arcing, the material
>may break down enough to leak material or other oxides into the water thus
>ionizing the water and ruining the
>spark gap.

   For that matter, what was the enclosure made of, not to mention the 
pumps, plumbing, etc. (many potential sources of dissolving more ions into 
the water)? AIUI DeIonized water is notoriously difficult to keep DI, 
otherwise we'd all be using it.

   Is some kind of continuous-flow deionization system feasible? How 
complicated would that be?

   Mark L. Fergerson