DC Spark gap coils, why not current limit on the LV AC side?

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

Original poster: "Hydrogen18" <hydrogen18-at-bellsouth-dot-net> 

I'm interested in the idea of DC Tesla coiling, and was wondering, why is 
it that you cannot simply put a ballast on the LV side of your 60 hz AC 
step up transformer and use that to prevent your rectifiers from blowing 
when the spark gap fires? I understand this would not allow for the 
doubling of the peak voltage of the capacitor like when a charging reactor 
is used on the HVDC output, but it seems like it would limit the current. I 
guess the problem of rotary gap power arcing still exists when a ballast is 
placed on the LVAC primary side of the transformer?

---Eric