Black and white smoke in Conclave indicates whether there is a new door. This is why the tradition exists.

Black smoke The height of the Sistin Church church on Wednesday indicated that the new Pope was not chosen to replace Pope Francis in the first ballot.

The use of smoke to communicate with the audience whether the new Pope has been elected is a fairly modern tradition of the Catholic Church. Cardinal voters In Conclave, which stems from a Latin word meaning “with the key”, it is imprisoned without contact with the outside world. So they use one of the oldest ways to communicate for long distances: smoke signals.

What does smoke in black and white mean?

Black smoke means that 1.4 billion Catholics in the world do not have a new door; White smoke means that they have a new Church leader.

Why the Vatican uses smoke to announce the Pope

Smoke signals were used to communicate with thousands of years, Claire Johnson, professor of liturgical studies and theology, wrote secrets at the University of Australia Catholic in an article published in Conversation. It has been used as a warning, an invitation to gather or transfer news – and many indigenous peoples use advanced techniques to indicate specific messages.

Johnson wrote: “These techniques can include a change of fire location (such as the middle of the road up or at the top of the hill), and set the color of smoke (using different types of foliage or wet/dry foliage) and the smoke column cuts or converted at different periods to produce certain patterns of smoke,” Johnson wrote.

Cardinate from Good The votes were burned since at least 1417, according to the professor, but until the eighteenth century, the Sistin Church was installed its first chimney. After that, smoke at certain times meant that the new Pope was not elected and the absence of smoke was not made that the Pope was new, according to Johnson.

The first time that the white smoke was the indicator that was elected on the new Pope in 1914. The former Pope, Pius X, was imposed in 1904 that all the papers related to the elections, not only the voices, were “burned”, thus producing much white smoke for the final vote and made it really visible, “the historian Frederic J.Behind the closed doors: the history of the papal elections.“

Johnson also pointed out that “stereotypes of smoke – white (positive) and black (negative) – lies behind the use of contrasting smoke colors.”

How the device creates smoke in black and white

Over the years, Conclave used different ways to create black and white smoke.

after Some confusion in the pastIncluding in 1958, when smoke first appeared white and then darker, Conclave began to use chemicals to get the appropriate color.

In 2013, Former Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardy Cardinate said they added cartridges containing potassium perirlores, anthracin – consisting of coal drops – and sulfur to burning ballot cards to create black smoke. If a new Pope is elected, the potassium, lactose and chloroform resins will be added to produce white smoke.

Was the Pope elected in the first ballot?

The Pope can be elected in the first ballot, but the Pope did not receive the third majority in the first ballot in the last elections.

the The shortest being you He was on the record in 1503, when the Cardinals took only 10 hours to choose Pope Pius III as the new Pope. The late Pope Francis was elected within two days with five votes, and the Papules were elected before it within two or three days.

the The longest level ever It has been withdrawn for about three years. Pope Gregory X was finally elected in September 1271 after about 1000 days.

Haley there

He contributed to this report.