@Aaron

I guess this is what you propose that happens in your circuit ?


You'll notice that I propose not just turning off inverter but completely disconnecting it from circuit (as well as the condenser connection) before discharging just to be sure nothing happens there.









This next picture shows the proposed polarity reversal.





I still have some questions and doubts as to why spark gap is cold.

1. What is the condenser capacity (so that one could calculate stored and released energy)?
2. What is the value of HV voltage impulse and it's duration?
3. Is there any change of the supposed bounced HV voltage impulse polarity?
4. Did you try raising frequency to a few kHz (ordinary car ignition coil should go up to 3-5 kHz)?
5. Did you try significantly raising condenser capacity in order to ensure bigger amount of energy is released?
6. Did you leave circuit to operate at few kHz for prolonged period of time (at least 15 min) and then measured a possible change in spark gap temperature?


Please don't get me wrong electro-radiant event might be happening but the total released energy could be so small so that spark might be jumping and igniting water while at the same time the released energy might be so small so not to significantly heat spark gap.

When dealing with apparently exotic stuff one must spare significant time and effort disproving possible conventional solutions. That being said I think this circuit is indeed interesting.