High voltage arcs (ie. from Tesla coil) guided by water stream?

[davekni]

A friend mentioned a fascinating thought:  He is contemplating a future project of a high-voltage squirt gun to make water-guided arcs.  That got me thinking about options for squirting water from the top of a Tesla coil and ways to avoid getting the base wet.  Also thinking in general about water streams and conductivity.  Surface tension of water usually makes thin streams (ie. from squirt gun) break up into drops.  Series of drops would be more conductive than plain air, but require rather high voltage to bridge all the gaps.  Adding a little surfactant to the water reduces surface tension, so should help make a more continuous stream.  High molecular weight water soluble polymers (tiny amount) would further help keep stream connected.  That combination of surfactant and trace of polymer are the key ingredients of soap bubble solution.  Many surfactants are sodium salts, so would color the arc yellow.  Down side is that any additives to the water make protecting the coil base more important, as mist or splashes would be more conductive and leave residue rather than evaporating completely.

Another variation would be to have a water stream arch spaced away from a Tesla coil to form a strike target.  Might be safer for the coil.   But I could also imagine arc causing water splatter when it hits stream.

Has anyone tried arcs guided by water streams?  It is a new item for my list of some-day projects.

[Mathieu thm]

I saw a video with a similar idea, here is the link :

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[davekni]

I saw a video with a similar idea, here is the link :

Thank you for the link.  I was guessing someone had tested such.  They'd likely have better luck with laminar flow using a higher molecular weight polymer than xanthan gum at lower concentration and with some surfactant too.  Guar gum would likely be better, or polyethylene oxide (J-lube) or polyacrylamide (non-cross-linked version, which is a bit hard to find) or one of the cellulose derivatives (CMC or HPMC or etc.).