Tradition holds that black smoke indicates the cardinals have not yet agreed on a new leader, while white smoke signals that ...

The result is a mixture of steam and white or light gray smoke that contrasts sharply with the dark, carbon-rich black smoke. Over the years, the papal conclave smoke signal has evolved from an ...

What does black smoke coming ... Papal Conclave. For white smoke, the Vatican says it used to use wet straw, but to make it a more pure color, instead of a confusing grey, they use potassium ...

When Catholic cardinals vote in the conclave, they then burn their ballots, sending up black smoke to signal ... to rule out any ambiguity should the white smoke look grey, the bells of St ...