Black smoke, no pope. White smoke, new pope.

The cardinals of the Catholic Church held their first ballot today to elect a pope. The conclave began 12 days after Benedict XVI renounced the throne. He became the first pope in modern times to do this. As the cardinals enter the Sistine Chapel, they leave the outside world and enter a very private space. The cardinals remain locked in isolation until one of the candidates receives two-thirds of the votes. At that time, that man will emerge from the process as the new spiritual leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics. 

 Since the cardinals are locked in isolation, their only contact with the outside world (everyone waiting for the word that a new pope has been elected) comes in the form of smoke signals. Black smoke means that no decision has been made on who among them will be the next pontiff. However, if white smoke emerges out of the chimney, than the world knows there is a new pope. 

To create the smoke, the Roman Catholic Church use to burn wet straw with all the paper ballots to give them smoke a dark color, indicating no decision had been made. However, instead of creating black smoke, wet straw creates grey smoke. In the past this has led to some confusion. To help eliminate confusion, chemical compounds are know used to give the smoke its proper color.

According to the Vatican, there are two iron stoves in the Sistine Chapel. The older stove will burn the ballots and the modern one, which is controlled by a computer, will add the chemicals to produce either white or black smoke. With black smoke billowing from the chimney today, the signal is clear--no new pope on the first day of the conclave.