I believe the idea about the points arcing without the condenser in the circuit has some merit. Just as the points break open from the action of the distributor cam, the collapsing magnetic field in the coil induces a voltage spike of 100 volts or so in the primary (low voltage) winding of the coil where either 6 or 12 volts was present a fraction of a second before. As the condenser charges with that voltage spike, the coil winding sees that as a continuation of current flow and the points are protected from flashover as they're opening up and increasing their resistance. Since electric current flows at approximately the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) the condenser gets its maximum charge in a few milliseconds. Then the high voltage goes racing backwards through the primary winding, effectively slamming the door on any further current flow. That causes an instantaneous collapse of the rest of the magnetism and a spike of several thousand volts is induced into the secondary winding to fire the spark plug. Without the condenser opposing the primary current flow, the magnetic field doesn't collapse quickly enough to develop that really big voltage pulse.
Jerry
