What Is The Olympic Flame?
The Olympic flame celebrates the passing of fire to mankind from the Greek god, Prometheus. During the earliest Olympic games, a caldron of fire was lit at the alter of Hera, the goddess of birth and marriage, as a symbol of purity, reason and peace – since the games were initiated at the beginning of a period of peace. During the early Olympics, relay races were held wherein runners would pass a lit torch between them until they crossed the finish line and this is the origin of the modern practice of runners carrying the lit torch from Olympia to light the cauldron of flame at the host city.
The torch is specially designed with a fuel-delivery system that allows it to burn through all kinds of conditions including rain, wind and sleet. The concept of the modern torch came from John Hench, a Disney artist, for the 1960 winter games and all torches since have used his design as their basis. Fuel burned has been everything from gunpowder to olive oil. For a while it was a mixture of hexamine (formaldehyde and ammonia) and naphthalene (used in mothballs), which burned very brightly but not very cleanly. The torch of the ’56 games was lit with a mixture of magnesium and aluminum but chunks of burning debris fell from this torch burning the legs of the final runner.
Since 1972, liquid fuel has been used. It is stored under pressure in the torch as a liquid but burns as a gas allowing a safer and light-weight design. In ’96 the fuel used was propylene but that was not very environmentally friendly. The creators for the Sydney, Australia games came up with a new fuel mixing propane and butane. It burns clean and can be stored under fairly low pressure. They instituted a "double flame" design, which features two rings of fire; an exterior flame that burns slowly and very brightly at lower temperatures and an interior flame that burns hotter with a small blue flame that is very stable and can act as a "pilot light" to the outer flame if it is doused by wind or other elements. The ceremony of the Olympic Torch is a proud tradition that was re-introduced in 1936 and continues today as an enduring part of the games carried by runners once dubbed the "heralds of peace."
The Olympic flame is the symbol of the Olympic Games. It used to be burned at the original Olympics, to watch over the Games. In ancient times the flame was symbolic of the theft of fire from the Gods. Prometheus, legend has it, stole fire from the Gods and gave it to the mortals for their use. So burning the flame was an honour to Promrtheus. The modren flame was re-introduced in 1928. In current times the flame is lit several months before the Games, at the site where the ancient games were held in Greece. The flame is then used to light a torch. This torch is carried by relay to the site where the modern games will be held that year. The torch relaying of the flame was introduced in 1936 for the Olympic Games which were held in Berlin, but is still very much a symbol of the Olympics today.
