smoke ring question

From what I understand, no. The wood burns slowly enough already on a low and slow cook, so the soaking is not necessary.
Others may have differing opinions.

Actually, maybe yes.
Earlier today I watched an episode of Steve Raichlen's new PBS series, Project Smoke, and he talked about smoke rings.  According to Steve one byproduct of combustion is nitrogen dioxide (which I've never heard of before but a quick check to Wikipedia confirmed its existence).  NO2 prevents the myoglobin in red meat from oxidizing, but can only penetrate so far; it is however soluble in water, so according to Steve spritzing the meat occasionally, or including a water pan in the cooking device, increases the moisture and allows NO2 to penetrate deeper into the meat.
The steam produced by soaking your chips may do the same thing.
 
I know there are at least two chemists on this forum, hope they can chime in and confirm Steve's claims.  

MeTed said:

Not that a smoke ring is a big deal to me but it is nice to know about such things.

Now I'm wondering this: I never cared that much about smoke rings either, but if a red steak tastes better than a brown steak, is it the extra myoglobin?  I'm guessing not (it's the loss of juices methinks) but I don't know.  

MeTed said:

Will soaking my wood chunks help produce a better smoke ring?

Technically yes. In practical use no. Let's use a offset for this analogy. If you were to feed it nothing but wet wood, it would produce heavy white dirty smoke almost constantly. This in return would would certainly produce a well defined smoke ring. However the trade off would be very bitter and strong tasting meat. Almost akin to soot.  Sometimes we use a little green or unseasoned wood (because it contains more moisture) to cheat a ring if you will. But it's used very sparingly and the food is monitored constantly. On the egg, you are cooking in a pretty air tight environment. For this reason I do not soak my wood chunks. I want it to burn as clean as possible. I find that I get a good ring by using dry wood. But to each their own. There are others who swear by soaking their wood. However I haven't found it necessary or beneficial for my cooking purposes. Here is a couple of deep and pronounced rings attained with dry oak and or dry pecan wood.