Word: smokes
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...string like a kind of combined ecclesiastical shishkebab and necklace, were thrust into the chapel stove along with black chemical lares to send up a dark "no Pope" signal to the waiting crowds in St. Peter's Square. But the flue above the stove was broken, and black smoke seeped through the chapel, partially obscuring Michelangelo's famous frescoes. For a quarter of an hour, the assembled Cardinals coughed, covered their mouths and rubbed their eyes until two windows were opened to clear the air. As the Cardinals broke for lunch, walking to the Pontifical Hall...
...Pontiff that they rushed up to the stove themselves and stuffed in their personal notes and tally sheets, igniting the paper with black flares. A white signal had already gone up, but now the Cardinalitial enthusiasm caused the chimney to belch bursts of black and gray smoke, keeping the crowd in St. Peter's Square guessing for the hour it took for John Paul to make his first appearance...
...more than an hour, confusion reigned in St. Peter's Square. When the smoke first began to curl out of a temporary rooftop chimney from the Vatican's Sistine Chapel at 6:24 p.m. on Saturday, it looked white?the traditional color to signal that the secret conclave within had elected a Pope. But could it be true? Not likely?not on the opening day of the largest, most complex gathering of Cardinal electors in the long pageant of papal elections. Sure enough, with dusk beginning to enfold the splendid statues and pillars of the Bernini colonnade, the smoke turned...
...left of the portal through which they entered was the iron stove that was later to send out those confusing signals. Beside the stove were chemical cartridges for producing black and white smoke. After a brief prayer, a final roll call and a last-minute sweep for bugging devices, the master of ceremonies pronounced: "Extra omnes" (Everybody out), and the doors were locked...
...next morning the balloting began, and as the basilica bells were still pealing the noontime Angelus, the first puff of smoke wafted from the chapel chimney: black. Nine minutes later, more black smoke billowed forth, then seemed to turn white, then black again. False alarm. After the morning's first two ballots, Vatican Radio announced, there was no decision...