When the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel spouts white smoke, it means that the Catholic Church officially has a new pope.

In 2013, the Vatican confirmed that their fumata recipes now consist of a clear black smoke recipe: potassium perchlorate ...

AFP (Credit: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images) Simply put, black smoke, or umata nera in Italian, indicates that no pope has been elected, while white smoke, or fumata bianca, will indicate ...

Black smoke means no pope ... Getty Images) According to the BBC, the Vatican reported that the black smoke is a mixture of potassium perchlorate, anthracene and sulphur, which the white smoke ...