Blue smoke vs grey smoke

[rsanz]

So blue smoke comes out the hot end and delicious grey smoke comes out the tasty end...

...does anyone know the scientific explanation for the difference in colour?

[Ken Gargett]

drink?

[Pilgrims]

Ken, is that the answer, request or an invitation...personally it is the answer to everything

[Ginseng]

Clearer blue smoke from the foot is the smoke of pure combustion. The smoke drawn from the head end has been filtered through the cigar and is cooled, bringing water vapor from that combustion along and condensing, thus appearing more opaque and cloudlike.

Wilkey

[Squarehead]

Clearer blue smoke from the foot is the smoke of pure combustion. The smoke drawn from the head end has been filtered through the cigar and is cooled, bringing water vapor from that combustion along and condensing, thus appearing more opaque and cloudlike.

Wilkey

Wilkey,that sounds like a very good explanation.

[ramon_cojones]

I notice "dirty" smoke from the head after draws on cigars with some age. I really like when I see that, fresher cigars don't usually do the same.

[PigFish]

Clearer blue smoke from the foot is the smoke of pure combustion. The smoke drawn from the head end has been filtered through the cigar and is cooled, bringing water vapor from that combustion along and condensing, thus appearing more opaque and cloudlike.

Wilkey

Hmmmm! I am not buyin' it Wilkey, old friend!!! -LOL

[mk05]

never listen to what wilkey says. ken is the old hen you need to take advice from.

[Ginseng]

Hen? Hen?

Wilkey

[PigFish]

... that's OLD HEN to you!

[Ginseng]

No, he was calling Ken the hen. Now Ken is many things, but hen? I'm still trying to wrap my mind around that. BTW, Piggy, I know you must have thoughts on why the smoked differs. Would love to hear it. I've been traveling so much, I frankly haven't much time for theorizing, as fun as it is.

Wilkey

[PigFish]

No, he was calling Ken the hen. Now Ken is many things, but hen? I'm still trying to wrap my mind around that. BTW, Piggy, I know you must have thoughts on why the smoked differs. Would love to hear it. I've been traveling so much, I frankly haven't much time for theorizing, as fun as it is.

Wilkey

LOL.. I am not good at pastels my friend and I can't say that I have ever noticed a difference in smoke color. I was pullin' your leg of course!!!

Here is what I know of the color of smoke. When your '60 vintage big-block Chevy emits blue smoke that means you are too rich. When the smoke is white you have a blown head gasket or you are burnin' oil!!!

Since smoke that is pulled from the head actually enters your mouth, all bets on color are off! The color change is undoubtedly the spirit of bad breath exorcised by the immolation of Holy tobacco.

Hope you are well amigo! -Ray

[mk05]

[Fuzz]

As long as it ain't yellow smoke....

[rsanz]

I like the big block chevy burning oil analogy.

Perhaps the oil in the tobacco is the cause...

[CanuckSARTech]

LOL.

[mk05]

This reminds me of grade school when we did spectrography with different chemicals. I think I recall that chemicals / compounds burn at different colors and temp.

[cmcompto]

This reminds me of grade school when we did spectrography with different chemicals. I think I recall that chemicals / compounds burn at different colors and temp.

This came from a "moment of science" and was actually written about cigarette smoke, but the same science applies:

The smoke changes color because the size of the smoke particles changes. The smoke particles rising from the cigarette (or cigar) tip are very small, smaller than the wavelengths of visible light. Because the particles are so tiny, when most light waves strike one of them they are not reflected back like a bouncing ball, but only slightly deflected from their paths. This is called “scattering.” The various colors of light have different wave lengths, and the ones toward the blue end of the color spectrum are the shortest. So, the short, blue waves are scattered about more by the tiny smoke particles because they are closer to the same size. Since mostly blue waves are scattered about the area, we see the smoke as blue. Most of the other, longer wavelengths go almost straight past the particles and we don’t see most of them.

Smoke particles that are sucked into the lungs (or mouth) are a bit bigger because they are not burned down completely.... Many are exhaled, though, and when they come out they have changed again. While in the lungs (or mouth), and on the way out, they pick up moisture so they become bigger still.

The particles are now big enough to reflect all wavelengths of light equally. When all the wavelengths are reflected back they make white light, and so the smoke looks white.

Following this reasoning, if a cigar has more moisture in it, there WILL be at least some water vapor emitted from the burning process and will yield more white smoke from the tip.

Thanks!

madconfusion

Ph.D in BS

[CaptainQuintero]

Interesting thing happened yesterday, was having a BHK52 and there was the usual blue smoke, but there was pure grey coming from the very end of the cigar. So I'm thinking the cooling of the smoke may have something to do with it, as the smoke you exhale will also be coole than the smoke coming off the ember.

[jacktarnold]

Very interesting. If I remember anything from my general chemistry college courses the color has to do with the wavelength of the light that is being refracted. The longer the wavelength the closer to the blue spectrum you will see and then as the wavelength increases it will go towards red and then finally white. That could be complete and utterly wrong but I think that is how it works.