How do they do it? The news picture looked like they were burning an old car tyre so that accounts for the black smoke. How will they make the white smoke? Stage smoke machine or something more traditional? ;-)
Tim
Water on the ballot papers.
According to one news report today, the last time this whole shindig took place the eventual white smoke looked identical to the foregoing black variety; someone had to come out and tell the waiting crowds that the someone had actually got the job. "But this time," said the reporter, "they've apparently got a new burner and the smoke really will be white".
Drain tester pyrotechnics at an educated guess.
Waxolene dyes are the traditional colour choice for aircraft display teams, but I expect the Vatican uses something far more medieval.
En el artículo , Tim+ escribió:
Who cares? Bunch of out-of-touch, irrelevant prejudiced old farts voting for their chief out-of-touch, irrelevant prejudiced old fart.
I vaguely recall the ambiguity in the past. That's why I suspect a stage smoke machine this time. ;-)
Tim
In article , Mike Tomlinson writes
Indeed, 'tis all the devil's work:
"Jack look up (Look Up) I can black smoke in the sky (Smoke in the sky) Just look up there's Brimstone & Fire (Everything was destroyed in seconds)"
A news item on the beeb earlier this evening showed two small cylindrical stoves, rather like the old fashioned tortoise stoves, connected to a temporarily erected chimney supported by scaffolding, the implication being one stove for white smoke, the other for black. No idea how they make the smoke the correct colour though. I was once told that smoke screens laid down by warships in WW2 were made by injecting titanium tetrachloride into the smoke stack, where it reacted with the steam to produce an aerosol of titanium dioxide and hydrochloric acid; very white if a little unpleasant.
It used to be by adding wet straw to the ballot paper fire, so the white smoke was actually steam.
Colin Bignell
Tim asked:
I should have realised this earlier: for white smoke they burn a white heretic, and for black smoke...
And also contributing towards many deaths. I've never seen such bollocks in all my life. Why do they have such a following? Looks like they do bloody well on the collection plate.
Hopefully Hetas approved, be a Cardinal sin otherwise.
G.Harman
What's the relevance of that to black and white smoke?
There is something in that article that seems to say that the Red Arrows are running on Red Diesel...
Burning phosphorous is simple and makes a pretty good white smoke although it is more than a little unpleasant to handle and the smoke is toxic and corrosive. But since they only need to do it infrequently.
Lets hope they pick one that lasts a bit longer since there are some who believe that this will be the last Pope ever.... TEOTW is nigh!
Apparently the other way round, according to Wiki:
"The colour of the smoke signals the results to the people assembled in St Peter's Square. Dark smoke signals (fumata nera) indicate that the ballot did not result in an election, while white smoke signals (fumata bianca) announce that a new pope was chosen. Originally, damp straw was added to the fire to create dark smoke; beginning in 1963 coloring chemicals have been added, and beginning in 2005 bells ring after a successful election, to augment the white smoke, and especially if the white smoke is not unambiguously white."
Actually, I'd love to see a joker produce some other colour of smoke to lighten up this otherwise completely irrelevant and boring appointment process. Not my words, but those of a Catholic friend of mine who feels the old guy is a total waste of Oxygen in any case!
Brian
Orange would be popular in some areas ...
Owain
Something more traditional. An article says: Black is potassium perchlorate, anthracene, and sulphur. White ist potassium chlorate, lactose and rosin.
Thomas Prufer
:-)
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