When a pope is or is not elected, what is used to make the smoke white or black?

lanfranco

They used to add wet straw to the burning ballots in order to produce white smoke. These days, however, they are adding chemical pellets to get the same effect. http://encarta.msn.com.guide-popewhathappens/What_Happens_When_a_Pope_dies.htm Apr 13 05, 2:33 PM

Creedy

In addition to the above - what they're using now: ­­The Vatican has used smoke to signal the election of a new pope since the late 1870s. In Catholic tradition, the election of a pontiff is signaled to the masses by sending white smoke up the Vatican chimney. If a new Pope is not elected, black smoke is used. This worked well until the 1958 papal election sent a cloud of grayish smoke up the chimney, leaving the crowd in the dark about the status of the election. Since then, they've used smoke bombs and Army flares to try and produce a more distinguishable color. Unfortunately, this often left hazardous smoke inside the room as well. Recently, the Vatican began working on a new procedure for their smoke signal, as well as adding the ringing of church bells to indicate a positive election result http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/wilderness/how-to-send-smoke-signal.htm/printable Aug 22 10, 11:59 PM