"A plane capacitor with rectangular plates is fixed in a vertical position....The capacitor is charged and disconnected from the battery...The lower part of the capacitor is now brought into contact with a dielectric liquid [e..g. deionized water]...When the plates contact the liquid's surface, a force in the upward direction is exerted on the dielectric liquid. The total charge on each plate remains constant." http://electron6.phys.utk.edu/PhysicsProblems/E&M/2-Dielectrics/capacitors_with_dielectrics.html

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yogendra-Srivastava-2/publication/23709608/figure/fig1/AS:416392504463364@1476287117403/When-parallel-capacitor-plates-are-submerged-into-a-dielectric-fluid-the-Maxwell-upward.png

In an electric field, water develops a specific bulk pressure that pushes in all directions and can, as in the above case, lift the water against the gravitational force:

"However, in experiments in which a capacitor is submerged in a dielectric liquid the force per unit area exerted by one plate on another is observed to decrease...This apparent paradox can be explained by taking into account the DIFFERENCE IN LIQUID PRESSURE in the field filled space between the plates and the field free region outside the capacitor." http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/jk1/lectures/node46.html

The pressure is NON-CONSERVATIVE. This means that, if suitably harnessed, it will do work AT THE EXPENSE OF AMBIENT HEAT and in violation of the second law of thermodynamics. Here is the molecular mechanism:

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRA0IrDVAR8ako9gvxLLmuYYWupOY9zmEmCVvqldbgY9lJj-lhX

If it were not for the indicated (with an arrow) dipole, other dipoles in the picture are perfectly polarized as if there were no thermal motion. Of course, this is an oversimplification – thermal motion is a factor which constantly disturbs the polarization order. The crucial point is that, as can be inferred from the picture, any thermal disturbance contributes to the creation of a local microscopic pressure. Consider the indicated dipole. It has just received a thermal stroke and has undergone rotation as a result. Now it pushes adjacent dipoles electrostatically. One can say, somewhat figuratively, that the indicated dipole has absorbed heat and now, by pushing adjacent dipoles, is trying to convert the absorbed heat into work.

The sum of all such microscopic disturbances is macroscopically expressed as bulk pressure. Systems of this kind can convert ambient heat into work, in violation of the second law of thermodynamics.

See more here: https://twitter.com/pentcho_valev

Pentcho Valev

In an electric field, the pressure in the bulk of water increases (becomes greater than the pressure in field-free regions):

Tai Chow, Introduction to Electromagnetic Theory: A Modern Perspective, p. 267: "The strictly electric forces between charges on the conductors are not influenced by the presence of the dielectric medium. The medium is polarized, however, and the interaction of the electric field with the polarized medium results in an INCREASED FLUID PRESSURE ON THE CONDUCTORS that reduces the net forces acting on them." http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-To-Electromagnetic-Theory-Perspective/dp/0763738271

Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky, Melba Phillips, Classical Electricity and Magnetism, pp.115-116: "Thus the decrease in force that is experienced between two charges when they are immersed in a dielectric liquid can be understood only by considering the effect of the PRESSURE OF THE LIQUID ON THE CHARGES themselves." http://www.amazon.com/Classical-Electricity-Magnetism-Second-Physics/dp/0486439240?tag=viglink21401-20

"However, in experiments in which a capacitor is submerged in a dielectric liquid the force per unit area exerted by one plate on another is observed to decrease...This apparent paradox can be explained by taking into account the DIFFERENCE IN LIQUID PRESSURE in the field filled space between the plates and the field free region outside the capacitor." http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/jk1/lectures/node46.html

This additional (non-conservative) pressure can produce cyclical flows that can be harnessed to do work. If, for instance, a small hole is punched in one of the plates of the submerged capacitor, the high interplate pressure will push water through the hole and so a permanent flow will form.

Water in an electric field automatically becomes a perpetual-motion machine of the second kind. Vigorous motion is generated that can do work (e.g. by rotating waterwheels) at the expense of ambient heat (there is no other source of usable energy):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17UD1goTFhQ&t=1s

Here a liquid in an electric field forms a jet:

Fundamentals of the Electrospray Process https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqemod9DutI&t=4s

The jet and other dynamic processes are powered by

(A) electric energy?

(B) ambient heat?

It is not difficult to see that (B) is the correct (only possible) answer.

More here: https://twitter.com/pentcho_valev

Pentcho Valev