Pope Francis dies at 88 - Black Smoke White Smoke tradition to select new Pope: Pope Francis has died at the age of 88, the Vatican announced on Monday (Apr 21). Now the world's attention will move to the election and the announcement of the next Pope. This process is steeped in tradition, and the most intriguing and anticipated part of it is the emergence of smoke from the Sistine chapel that indicates whether the final decision has been made on the next pontiff of the Roman Catholic church.

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But when and why did the smoke practice arise, and what is the chemical process to create separate colours - black and white- for the smoke? Here is a quick explainer.

Fumata, the tradition of smoke signals to announce the new pope

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Fumata, the name of the tradition of using smoke signals to confirm that the Roman Catholic church cardinal conclave has reached a conclusion on the next Pope, is a centuries-old practice.

It is both about spiritual symbolism and practicality. The pope is elected by the conclave in a secret voting process.

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In order to ensure secrecy, every ballot will have to be burned.

And 'fumata nera', or black smoke, means the voting has been inconclusive. White smoke, or 'fumata bianca', means a pope has been successfully elected.

When did the smoke signal practice start for announcing the new Pope?

It is not clear exactly when the smoke signal practice started, but it is thought to have begun sometime in the late medieval and early modern period.

It was formalised as a practice in the 19th century, as per Catholic church historians.

The word 'conclave', which elects the pope, has Latin origin, and means 'with a key'.

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This is the secretive gathering of cardinals to elect the pope.

The conclave was established by  Pope Gregory X in 1274.

Before that, conclaves did not share the information with the public on the election of the new pope. 

Believers used to gather outside the Sistine Chapel to know about the next pope, and smoke was used as a means to communicate what was going on with the cardinal conclave's selection process.

How is black smoke and white smoke created in announcing new Pope election? The chemical process

In the olden days, the white smoke was created by burning the ballots on dry straw, and the black smoke was created using wet straw.

In the 20th century, chemical processes were introduced.

Additives were introduced in 1963 so that the smoke signals are clear and distinct.

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These days, the ballots are first buried in a stove, and the desired colour is created through specific chemical compounds.
Potassium perchlorate and anthracene are added to create black smoke.

Potassium chlorate, lactose, and rosin are used for creating white smoke.

An electronically controlled, second stove with chemical cartridges was introduced in 2005 in order to avoid ambiguity.

Confusion over smoke colours to announce new Pope

The new technologies are being used for the smoke signals in view of the confusion in the past. At the 1958 conclave, the smoke colour was not clear, leading to uncertainty among the faithful.

In 2005, the smoke was reported to be greyish in colour.

Since then, the church bells in St. Peter's Basilica also toll as an additional signal to confirm the selection of the pope.

When Pope Francis was elected in 2013, the white smoke was clear and distinct.The bells at St Peter’s rang out for further confirmation at the time.

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Once the 'fumata' process confirms that a new pope has been elected, millions of Roman Catholicscs rejoice, with the ringing of church bells and celebrations across the world.