At a previous job we manufactured fairly large trailer-mounted generators. During design engineering testing, you would want to power a load with the generator to check performance. The test load we had was a giant resistor bank, in a pallet-sized enclosure about 4 feet tall, with fans for active cooling of the oodles of resistance heat being put off by it. I talked to one of the electrical engineers about how ludicrous this device was, and he said that we used to use something even weirder. A giant tank filled with salt water (can't remember for sure if they were using NaCl or a different electrolyte) with probes just dumping all that current right into the water. Wish I had seen it.
I've worked in a rail yard where we overhauled locomotive engine & traction alternator sets, which were generating upwards of 3.3MW so we used a big saltwater resistor as a load bank.
It was the only bit of equipment that scared me, because the plates and tank were fairly rusty. I was waiting for it to let go midway through a test and flood the place with boiling salty water (and who knows what chaos the suddenly unloaded generator would have caused)
At a previous job, we ran a nuclear reactor but didn't want much electricity, so we'd use the power to turn a giant water wheel with all the surplus steam...
No, the water wheel ("water brake", they called it) was real, it was for wasting energy, and we didn't go anywhere; but also, yes, it was a submarine, in form, albeit not exactly in function.
I'm not sure what's ludicrous about this setup though? For testing you want the simplest possible setup - which a giant resistor bank really is. Power is power when you run it through simple resistance - no AC shenanigans will hide effects.
The electrolysis rig seems a bit ridiculous, since it generates a bunch of flammable gas you have to deal with. A big resistive load for testing stuff seems pretty normal though.
I see your point, though we barely ever had to top the tank up with water or salt. The amount of gas created was minimal, at least with our setup - admittedly not as fancy as a battery and a dish of water ;)
