John Smith I wrote:
I have been searching the internet, it seems to me someone would have:

1) Constructed an airtight room, filled it with a gas such as neon and
placed an antenna in such a room. The power/freq to the antenna could
be varied and "patterns" observed in how the rf was exciting the gas
into "glowing" in the visible range while observing any visible patterns
in such.

2) Constructed gas insulated coax enclosed in a glass or plastic tube
with sufficient gap in the outer conductor where observations could be
made to see if "reflections" or other observable anomalies, and voltage
and current observed.

Anyone aware of anything close to any of this. Seems like this is right
up some universitys' alley, nasa, etc. ...

Look up Lecher Lines... Essentially the same idea.

One can also see the evidence of breakdown after the fact, by, e.g.
melted spots in coax.


Another interesting experiment is to take a plate full of marshmallows,
closely packed, and put it into a microwave oven (without the rotating
table turning)..

The mode pattern (standing waves) will be melted into the marshmallows.