How does conclave make black and white smoke

The ballots and personal notes are burned in a cast-iron stove that is about 3-feet high and about 19 inches in diameter. When the ballots are burned in the older stove, it triggers an electronic, smoke-producing device outfitted on a second, more modern stove, which was first used in the conclave for the election of Benedict XVI.

The device releases a cartridge holding five "charges" or containers of one of the two chemical mixtures. The five charges are loaded one at a time into the device to produce enough black or white smoke to remain visible for about seven minutes.

Each of the five charges are about 25 centimeters by 15 centimeters by 7 centimeters, according to the Vatican, or roughly 10 inches by 5 inches by 3 inches -- more or less the size of a box of tissues. The exhaust pipes of the older, cast-iron stove and the modern stove are joined together as one singular pipe, which then leads to the Sistine Chapel's chimney.

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Good Subscriber Account active since Shortcuts. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile. To eliminate the confusion, they've now moved on to using chemical compounds to give the smoke the proper color.

Another distinguishing factor, is that along with white smoke, the bells of St. Peter's Basilica will ring to signal a new pontiff. As CBS News' Bob Schieffer discussed on "Face the Nation," it is important that the smoke is the right color, because it's not just the locals that get confused, but the world as well.

Black smoke billows from a chimney atop the Sistine Chapel in Vatican. With Italy often used as a battleground in history, those trying to unify Italy captured Rome and scaled down the Papal States to what is known as Vatican City today. An offended Pope Leo XII, the next pope to be elected after the battle, decided to snub the Italians and gave his papal address inside the Vatican instead of on the balcony of St. But they had to tell the world it had a new pope so they invented this system of lighting a fire and letting the smoke speak.

Further on, Pope Pius X, elected in and died in , decided that once the votes had been counted it had to be burned inorder to maintain secrecy and also prevent external forces from interfering in the process.