# I light my cigar, or touch it up: what happens when it goes from smoldering to flaming? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 9, 2014, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-light-my-cigar-or-touch-it-up-what-happens-when-it-goes-from-smoldering-to-flaming/695166 "2014-08-09T14:07:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2014, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-light-my-cigar-or-touch-it-up-what-happens-when-it-goes-from-smoldering-to-flaming/695166/1 "2014-08-09T14:07:45Z")
See subject, as in " ok already, it’s lit, now it’s turning into a flamethrower." I’ve read the Wiki on smoldering, and it says only something about different phases of combustion. Can someone flesh that out for me? I’m guessing the phenomenon/word “flame-out” in propulsion is related, and I don’t know why it’s “bad” or why it happens. ETA: autocorrect insists on no “u.” ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2014, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-light-my-cigar-or-touch-it-up-what-happens-when-it-goes-from-smoldering-to-flaming/695166/2 "2014-08-09T21:48:01Z")
What, exactly, is the question? It’s going to be hard to get an answer to such a vaguely framed query. Can you state it more precisely? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2014, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-light-my-cigar-or-touch-it-up-what-happens-when-it-goes-from-smoldering-to-flaming/695166/3 "2014-08-09T21:51:31Z")
Are you asking what the difference is between flames and embers? Flames are incandescent gases; embers are incandescent solid materials. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2014, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-light-my-cigar-or-touch-it-up-what-happens-when-it-goes-from-smoldering-to-flaming/695166/4 "2014-08-09T21:55:38Z")
I think he’s asking why some hot materials convert atmospheric gases into flames, and some don’t . Akin to the coals in your grill. When they get hot enough to cook your steak, they do not cause ignition of anything that can manifest itself as a flame. Why not? ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2014, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-light-my-cigar-or-touch-it-up-what-happens-when-it-goes-from-smoldering-to-flaming/695166/5 "2014-08-09T22:03:08Z")
AFAICT, the OP is asking how fire works. I think the essence of the question was addressed in the linked article, for instance: “_The fundamental difference between smouldering and flaming combustion is that smouldering occurs on the surface of the solid rather than in the gas phase._” The factors that cause flaming vs. smouldering – as anyone who has poked at a fireplace knows – is a complicated interaction of temperature, material type, airflow, and exposed surface area. I myself am a frequent cigar smoker in the summer, when I can sit out on the porch. I have never had one erupt in flames while lighting. Perhaps the OP should lay off the cheap cigars! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2014, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-light-my-cigar-or-touch-it-up-what-happens-when-it-goes-from-smoldering-to-flaming/695166/6 "2014-08-10T10:59:31Z")
What happens when your cigar goes from smouldering to flaming, is that the CIA is trying to kill you. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2014, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-light-my-cigar-or-touch-it-up-what-happens-when-it-goes-from-smoldering-to-flaming/695166/7 "2014-08-10T14:28:40Z")
For Leo Bloom? About forty pages of rambling and occasionally erotic thoughts ---
**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2014, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-light-my-cigar-or-touch-it-up-what-happens-when-it-goes-from-smoldering-to-flaming/695166/8 "2014-08-10T22:11:48Z")
The OP made sense to me. Touching up a cigar sounds similar to “stirring a fire.” It seems to me that in the smoldering phase the there is insufficient oxygen for complete combustion as smoke crowds out oxygen necessary for combustion of the volatile gases. When you poke a fire you are knocking apart the embers and rearranging them in such a manner as to expose more surface area to oxygen causing a flame-up which can then sustain itself by both having more surface area exposed and also increased convection to draw in fresh air at the base of the fire. The increase in oxygenation of the fuel causes it to burn more efficiently (cleanly) which eliminates much of the smoke which was tending to smother the flames. I am not a fireman or a pyromaniac so YMMV.