Brian, those are very very cool test,s you did.
I am proud on you. Never give up, i would say.
You are the first showing high voltage on the electrodes of a Meyer test setup.
I never seen anything like this before.
My comments : i think that your coil between the cell and diode, is picking up power from the secondairy.
That closes that part of the circuit.
Question: can you try separating the cell with diodes and coil , from the high voltage transformer?
Just use a long wire between them.
At least 2 meters would be good.
I wanna know if you see bubbles with that distance..
Man....!!!! Wow!!! Those sparks show a voltage of at least 10kilovolts....