Posted at 1:07 a.m., Thursday, October 18, 2007
Olympics: Beijing designs high-tech, everlasting torch
Advertiser Staff
BEIJING — Beijing organizers are designing a high-tech Olympic torch capable of withstanding gale-force wind, torrential rain and even the oxygen-thin air atop Mount Everest.To eliminate chances of the flame going out, authorities have set up a torch design lab under the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, the Xinhua News Agency reported today.
"The flame ... should be bright and very pleasant to the eyes," technician Xue Li said.
The Olympic flame was introduced to the modern Olympics in 1928. Ahead of each games, the torch is lit at Olympia in Greece — site of the ancient Olympic Games — and transported to the host city by a relay of runners, with the last using it to ignite a cauldron at the host stadium during the opening ceremony.
It has gone out at least twice during the Olympics, including at the 1976 Montreal Games when it was drowned in a rainstorm and was restarted with an official's cigarette lighter. Organizers later lit it again with a backup flame from Olympia.
Xue said the roughly 10-inch high flame is designed to resist gusts of up to 106.96 feet per second and downpours of up to 1.97 inches per hour, Xinhua reported.
Its fuel would be "well stored and pollution-free", Xue said.
Torch fuel has traditionally been a mix of butane and propane that gives off a bright yellow flame without releasing toxins or thick smoke.
Beijing organizers plan to stage the longest torch relay in Olympic history — an 85,000-mile, 130-day route that would cross five continents.
There have been controversies over its proposed passage through Tibet and Taiwan. Taiwan, a self-ruled island China regards as its own, has rejected Beijing's terms for inclusion on the route. Tibet independence supporters accuse Beijing of using the relay to convey a false message of harmony in the troubled Himalayan region that China troops occupied in 1951.
