Here's how the conclave creates black and white smoke and why the Catholic Church began using them to signal whether a new pope has been elected.

While this process is held in secrecy, the rest of the world is informed on the group's daily decisions by white or black-colored smoke funneled from the top of the Sistine Chapel. Black smoke ...

Here puffs of black smoke mark voting rounds that fail to converge on a winner until the cardinals announce that they have come to an agreement by releasing a plume of white smoke, the dramatic ...

Here puffs of black smoke mark voting rounds that fail to converge on a winner until the cardinals announce that they have come to an agreement by releasing a plume of white smoke, the dramatic ...

In a tradition that scholars date to the 19th century, smoke released from a chimney will be colored white if the cardinals have made a decision, or black if they remain deadlocked. By Elisabetta ...