Experiment
In a typical experiment, two 100 mL beakers are filled with deionized water to roughly 3 mm below the edge of the beaker, and exposed the water to 15 kV direct current, with one beaker turning negative, and the other positive. After building up electric charge, the water then spontaneously rises along the thread over the glass walls and forms a "water bridge" between them. When one beaker is slowly pushed away from the other, the structure remains. When the voltage rises to 25 kV, the structure can be pulled apart as far as 25 millimetres (0.98 in). If the thread is very short, then the force of the water may be strong enough to push the thread from the positive glass into the negative glass.
The water generally travels from anode to cathode, but the direction may vary due to the different surface charge that builds up at the water bridge surface, which will generate electrical shear stresses of different signs. The bridge breaks into droplets due to capillary action when the beakers are pulled apart at a critical distance, or the voltage is reduced to a critical value.
The bridge needs clean, deionized water to be formed, and its stability is dramatically reduced as ions are introduced into the liquid (by either adding salt or from electrochemical reactions at the electrode surface).
Read more about this topic: Water Thread Experiment
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