- published: 29 Jan 2016
- views: 151068
A torch is a fire source, usually a rod-shaped piece of wood with a rag soaked in pitch and/or some other flammable material wrapped around one end. Torches were often supported in sconces by brackets high up on walls, to throw light over corridors in stone structures such as castles or crypts. This traditional use of the word lives on in the Olympic Torch, procession torches and the like.
A torch carried in relay by cross-country runners is used to light the Olympic flame which burns without interruption until the end of the Games. These torches and relay tradition were introduced in 1936 Summer Olympics by Carl Diem, the chairman of the event because during the duration of the Ancient Olympic Games in Olympia, a sacred flame burns inside of the temple of Hera, kept in custody by her priestess.
If a torch is made of sulfur mixed with lime, the fire will not diminish after being plunged into water. Such torches were used by the ancient Romans.
Procession torches are made from coarse hessian rolled into a tube and soaked in wax. There is usually a wooden handle and a cardboard collar to deflect any wax droplets. They are an easy, safe and relatively cheap way to hold a flame aloft in a parade, or to provide illumination in any after-dark celebration.
The animals scattered in all directions
screaming terrible screams.
Many were burning
others were burnt.
All were shattered
and scattered mindlessly,
their eyes bulging.
Some hugged their sons,
others their fathers and mothers,
unable to let them go,
and so they died,
and so they died.
Others leapt up in their thousands,
faces disfigured
and were consumed by the fire.
Everywhere were bodies
squirming on the ground,
wings, eyes and paws all burning.
They breathed their last