VATICAN CITY (AFP) – First
black smoke from Sistine Chapel signals no new pope.
The famous smoke from a
chimney to indicate whether cardinals locked away in the Sistine Chapel have
elected a pope is not created just by burning used ballots, the Vatican said
Tuesday.
“We use smoke flares,” Paolo
Sagretti, who was in charge of setting up the chapel for the election conclave,
told AFP.
The ancient signalling
system — still the only way the public learns whether a pope has been elected —
used to involve mixing wet straw with the ballots to produce white smoke, and
pitch to create black smoke.
After several episodes in
which greyish smoke that could be interpreted as white or black created
confusion, the Vatican introduced the surer system starting with the last
conclave in 2005.
The Vatican now uses a
mixture of potassium perchlorate, anthracene and sulphur to produce black smoke
and potassium chlorate, lactose and rosin for white, the Vatican says on its
website.
Two stoves stand in a corner
of the chapel, one for burning the ballots and the other for the chemicals,
with the smoke from both stoves going up a common flue.
An electronic control panel
allows the choice between the two, and the correct compound is burned at the
same time as the used ballots.
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