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.
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