metalresearcher
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Black and white smoke at papal elections: which chemicals ?
From www.news24.com:
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The Vatican on Wednesday divulged the secret recipe used: potassium perchlorate, anthracene, which is a derivative of coal tar, and sulfur for the
black smoke; potassium chlorate, lactose and a pine resin for the white smoke.
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Why Anthracene (C14H10) ? Polystyrene is also a notorious black smoke generator.
And does zinc powder + KClO3 not generate excellent white smoke ?
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Endimion17
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They do it by the push of a button. The chemicals are loaded in the device, waiting for the ignition to occur.
Metal powders in strong oxidizers pose a concern because you never know - they might ignite on their own and they don't want that. Imagine
the confusion. Lactose and pine resin are much more stable.
Anthracene? I suppose because the amount of carbon is much greater, and because it's much denser. They need a lot of that smoke, and loading
huge amounts of stuff into the device is not practical.
Anthracene is the most carbon-rich substance known which readily burns in oxidizing environment. Graphite would be the next step, but it is very
sluggish.
[Edited on 14-3-2013 by Endimion17]
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Adas
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Seriously???
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrene
Rest In Pieces!
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ElectroWin
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my understanding was that it is either fresh straw (black smoke) or dry straw (white smoke) and no newfangled technology used.
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Morgan
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"Historically, to make the black smoke, people added damp straw to the fire. But it turns out that sealing wax on the ballots also affected the color
of the smoke, so when they did away with the sealing wax ballots in the 1950s, the smoke signals were ambiguous. Now the church adds chemical
colorants to the smoke signals to create a clear-as-day sign to onlookers outside the Vatican."
http://www.livescience.com/27875-strange-facts-choosing-new-...
"Five years later, they tried army flares. In the first of the two 1978 conclaves, they switched to chemical additives, but the backdraft was
sickening and the cardinals "came out hacking and wheezing," John Thavis writes in his book "The Vatican Diaries."
Conclave smoke signals a bit of a gray area
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/11/17213060-concl...
[Edited on 14-3-2013 by Morgan]
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kmno4
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No, no chemicals.
You know nothing about it.
White smoke - powdered body of a white priest/cardinal
Black smoke - ..................................black.....................
etc
Simple and obvious.
Слава Україні !
Героям слава !
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Endimion17
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Oh crap, I was thinking about anthracite. 
Well, pyrene is a lot more toxic... It might be more expensive, too. There surely is a reason.
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unionised
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Just a thought: if God's wisdom guides them, why does it ever take more than one vote, and why isn't it unanimous?
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=250322701772017&s...
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IrC
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How do you know it's chemically done in light of Cern's claim? Maybe ballots against are regular, and the material in ballots for contain the 'God
particles'?
http://www.livescience.com/27888-newfound-particle-is-higgs....
[Edited on 3-15-2013 by IrC]
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts" Richard Feynman
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cyanureeves
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indeed unionised!and why vote at all?even Timothy selected leaders but never called for ballots. the time when benedictus was still poping and
lightning struck his tent reminded me of the verse"and i saw satan fall like lightning from heaven".i used to pour tranny fluid into my carb to free
up sticky valves and fill the whole neighborhood wilth pure white smoke.dominus dextron ll .
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Adas
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I doubt that ALL of them follow God's wisdom, some of the cardinals even smoke, which is not a good sign. Maybe some of them are, and the others are
not, but God's wisdom is very decisive. It is a question though, if they want to follow that, or their own feelings and their own wisdom.
Rest In Pieces!
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Morgan
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Saw this on Reddit
http://imgur.com/apSbfMs
Viewer comments
That's how they make the white smoke.
"I'm a Cardinal...not a Saint."
Guys they're Catholics not Mormons.
My Mom used to cater for a venue that held a lot of Catholic priests' private discussions, and she said that whenever they were finished in their
private room, they'd come out and drink and smoke more than anybody she'd ever seen. All of them, always.
I guess when you give up so many vices, the ones you are allowed, you do in spades.
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simba
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This is just religion's usual nonsense. I always wondered why they need money aswell, when god itself should be sponsoring them.
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Endimion17
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Quote: Originally posted by simba  | | This is just religion's usual nonsense. I always wondered why they need money aswell, when god itself should be sponsoring them.
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He loves you and he needs money!
[Edited on 16-3-2013 by Endimion17]
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Endimion17
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As asked in the comments section, we've got the periodicvideos new video showing how the black and the white smoke is being made.
<iframe sandbox width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zf0gCterxVo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Poor Neil, they've cracked his funnel. 
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