This article is about torches as portable fire sources. For the modern British English meaning of torch as a portable electric light-source, see flashlight. For the German rapper Torch, see Torch (rapper).

Originally, a torch was a portable source of fire used as a source of light, usually a rod-shaped piece of wood with a rag soaked in pitch 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.

Common uses

A torch carried in relay by cross-country runners is used to light the Olympic flame which burns without interruption until the following Olympics.

In construction usage, a torch is a small hand-held burner which makes a hot flame, usually fueled by oxygen and either acetylene or propane, that is used for either cutting or welding metals, particularly iron and steel. For example, blowtorch, cutting torch, or welding torch. For more information, see gas welding.

torches are often used as a prop in toss juggling: they can be flipped into the air in an end-over-end motion while being juggled, in the same manner as juggling clubs or juggling knives , but because of their sound and 'trail of flame', they can appear much more impressive to audiences. To a skilled juggler, there is only a slight chance of being burned, nevertheless any person working -- or playing -- with fire should be well aware of all aspects of fire safety.

Symbolism

The torch is a common emblem of enlightenment. Thus the Statue of Liberty, actually "Liberty Enlightening the World" lifts her torch. Crossed reversed torches were signs of mourning that appear on Greek and Roman funerary monuments. In England in the first half of the twentieth century a torch was used as the road sign indicating a school.