The color of that smoke depends on what those particles are made of," Robert Krampf, a science educator who calls himself the Happy Scientist, told CBS News via email. White smoke is usually more complex, made up of fuel vapor, water vapor or mineral ash.
Originally, the Roman Catholic Church burned wet straw with the paper ballots to give the smoke its dark color -- which worked for a while. The incomplete burning produces the particles of carbon needed for dark colored smoke," said Krampf. But perhaps the Vatican is missing a trick by being unimaginatively monotone.
Why stop at a mere two-colour signalling system? The lurid rainbow smokes used in aerial displays like those of the Red Arrows are simply tinted with bright pigments and dyes such as indigo and rhodamine. If you would like to comment on this article or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.
Share using Email. The second takes over the ballot and also writes down the name. The third reads the name written on the ballot aloud. This is done with each ballot, so that at the end of a vote you have a kind of paper chain. The revisors check the procedure and the result of the vote.
The bundled voting ballots plus all other paper that is used, is put in a stove. The stove stands on the other side of the Sistine Chapel. Since the conclave, the stove consists actually of two stoves. When the ballots are burned in one stove right on the photo , it triggers an electronic, smoke-producing device outfitted on a second, more modern stove left. From both stoves a pipe comes together and passes through a window high in the chapel.
On top of it is a chimney that can be seen from St. The idea is that people in St. In that case, the second vote is held the next day. A maximum of four rounds of voting are held each day except the first day. After the fourth day of voting i. This is followed by seven votes and a day of rest each time until after fourteen days a new election key is used.
Then whoever has half the voters plus one behind him becomes pope. But in practice the cardinals settle things much faster. The ten conclaves of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have lasted an average of 3.
Benedict XVI was even elected in near record time: two days and four ballots. The fastest pope election was when Pius XII won in after three ballots. When a candidate is backed by the required number of cardinals, the vice-dean has to ask him if he accepts the election as summum pontifex. Popes take on a new name, much like a monk entering an order. This custom seems to have begun with John II who found his proper name a bit all too pagan Mercury, god of commerce.
Then the new pope is taken to what is known as the weeping room, a side room next to the Sistine Chapel. It is so named because the new pope can let his emotions run free after all the tension. The exhaust pipes of the older, cast-iron stove and the modern stove are joined together as one singular pipe, which then leads to the Sistine Chapel's chimney.
So the smoke we see from St. Peter's Square is a mixture from the cardinals' burning ballots and the chemicals. We'll notify you here with news about. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? Comments 0.
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