Ahh, yes, I remember the thoroughness of that Richie Burnett guy. Good refresher on this subject. Im happy to hear that the multiple sparkgap is the more appropriate choice for CW operation. Its just so darn simple looking. Is there a reason why you wouldn't submerge that in oil as opposed to blowing air across it? I like the idea of a faster, cooler & quieter quench.

I picked up a copy of Tesla's Lecture before the New York Academy of Sciences (April 6, 1897) and was being inspired about his progress with the table top high frequency oscillators and got stuck at his description to what I think he is calling the ballast inductor. He calls it the 'charging coil' to "help raise the pressure to any value desired for charging the condenser."
This lecture was before his learnings at Colorado Springs with his fires, so perhaps its a premature description.
I love the simplicity of his table top oscillators and was hoping to take the learnings in his writings and your learnings here to produce an desktop of my own for experimenting and practicing with tuning. But with some of the new considerations from Mr. Burnett, i'm scratching my head a bit on how to precisely (and simply) think about the ballast / charging coil.
Looks like Tesla doesn't use a step up transformer in his boxes here. :o