Antipathy between the water and carbon causes 'water-strings' to spontaneously form centrally in each capillary. Over short distances these water-strings will behave as efficient fibre optics for any light introduced longitudinally at very shallow angles of incidence.

At the cut string end a short length of each water-string will be expelled after priming. The properties of electrostatic antipathy, surface tension and extant electromagnetic forces all bear upon the water to exit via the cut string end but the end-meniscus formed at the break will be unable to advance over the last few millimetres, where longitudinal antipathy becomes massive relative to lateral pressure and a balance point occurs, keeping the remainder of the water in each capillary.