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Mark Williams Colton High School Library mwillia@cello.gina.calstate.edu "For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, press 3 now." ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 2 Apr 1995 19:45:39 -0700 (PDT) From: Mark Williams <mwillia@cello> To: Melba Tomeo <TOMES1@AOL.COM> Cc: Multiple recipients of list LM_NET <LM_NET@suvm.acs.syr.EDU> Subject: Re: REF: Olympic Torch Well, maybe this will help. For the 1984 Olympics, the flame was kindled at Olympia in Greece using a lens and the sun's rays. I am almost certain that it is always done in this manner. In much earlier modern Olympics the torch was a real torch. Today, a gas fired torch is used, with the gas supply in the handle. As the torch get low on fuel, it is touched to another, and so on. For the L.A. Olympics torch run across America, ATT had trucks following the various runners with spare torches. In the truck, a "keeper" flame, also kindled from the Olympia source, was kept burning from portable cylinders of gas so that the actual flame could be used to rekindle torches if necessary. The flame is flown across bodies of water, and the flame is fed from portable tanks of fuel, compressed propane usually during the trip. In Lillehammer the ski jumper used a slightly different torch than was used for other legs of the run. Although it looked like the others, _it_ was pressurized, force-feeding the gas to the flame so it would not blow out during the skier's jump. And in Barcelona, an archer used a traditionalal arrow wrapped with an oil-soaked rag (which was lit from the torch) and fired the arrow over the Olympic cauldron. The cauldron's gas jets had been turned on moments before so the air above it was filled with vaporized gas. As the flaming arrow passed through the cloud, it ignited the cauldron. So the two most recentGames had very impressive ignitions. I wonder what Atlanta will come up with? Mark Williams Colton High School Library mwillia@cello.gina.calstate.edu "For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, press 3 now."