Blue PVC coil form

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Dave Leddon by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <leddon-at-attbi-dot-com>

I picked up a piece of blue PVC pipe 13" diameter, 56" long, ¾ thick wall
that I though might make a very stout secondary coil form.  After cleaning
with a pressure washer and drying overnight I placed the pipe about 4" for
the toroid of my 6" coil to check for conductivity.  Well, it conducted,
but not in the way I expected if the pigment used to color the plastic were
to blame.  Sparks danced both vertically and horizontally over the entire
surface forming all sorts of rectangular patterns and did not take the
shortest path to ground.  Quite a show actually.  Is it possible that the
current is conducting only on the surface and that a rubdown with some sort
of solvent will render the pipe usable as a coil form?  Has anybody else
had experience with this stuff?
Dave