Eternal Fire - a symbol of memory

Eternal fire symbolizes the eternal memory of someone or something. As a rule, it is included in the thematic memorial complex.

Flowers are always brought to him, they come to worship, stand and shut up. It burns in any weather: in winter and in summer, at any time of day: day and night, without letting go of human memory ...

The eternal flame was also lit in the ancient world. For example, in Ancient Greece, the Olympic flame did not fade away. In many of its temples as a shrine supported by special priests. Later this tradition migrated to ancient Rome, where the eternal fire burned constantly in the temple of Vesta. Before that, it was used by the Babylonians, Egyptians and Persians.

In modern times, the tradition originated after the First World War, when in Paris in 1921 a memorial of an unknown soldier was opened - a monument whose Eternal Flame illuminates the Arc de Triomphe. In our country for the first time it was solemnly lit not in the capital, but in the small village of Pervomaisky near Tula, near the monument to the heroes who fell in the Great Patriotic War. In Moscow, three symbols of memory are burning today: at the Kremlin wall, as well as at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and on the Poklonnaya Hill.

For many, military monuments are a token of gratitude to those who were able to ward off the threat of fascism from the world, but the Eternal Flame is special. Sometimes it seems that the flame breaks out of the stone itself, but this is not entirely true, because a person sees only the result of the operation of very complex devices. The mechanism is a pipe through which gas is supplied to the device where a spark is generated. Such a design needs periodic prevention. Experts regularly check the integrity of the pipeline, clean the dust-cutting mechanism or the carbon-carving mechanism, update the exterior lining, usually made of metal in the form of a torch or a star.

The combustion inside the device takes place in the burner, where oxygen is restricted. The flame, coming out, flows around the cone through the holes in the crown. Eternal fire burns irrespective of weather: from a rain, a snow or a wind. Its design is thought out in such a way that it remains always protected. In the calm, the rain falling into the cone is self-discharged outward along the drainage pipe, and the water, which is at the bottom of the metal cylinder, flows evenly from the holes in it. And when there is an oblique shower, then droplets, getting on the hot burner, immediately evaporate, not reaching the core of the flame. The same happens with snow. Once inside the cone, it immediately melts, emerging outward. At the bottom of the metal cylinder, the snow just surrounds the flame and can not extinguish it in any way. And the prongs on the crown reflect gusts of wind, forming a kind of barrier from the air in front of the holes.

Memorials created in memory of the dead heroes were installed in many cities of the former Soviet republics. And almost everywhere they are preserved, as evidenced by their numerous photos. Eternal flame is an indispensable attribute of these memorials, remaining the most sacred and the most expensive symbol of the memory of the feat.