Beijing organizers are designing a high-tech Olympic torch which, like the American Post Office, will get there, brightly lit. To misquote only slightly:

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor gloom of night shall keep the torch from staying alight on its appointed rounds.

It is being designed to be able to withstand gale-force wind, torrential rain and even the oxygen-thin air atop Mount Everest.

A torch design lab under the China Aerospace Science and Industry has been set up. Technician Xue Li said, ‘The flame … should be bright and very pleasant to the eyes.’ (The torch in the illustration is NOT the torch that will be used but it does give the feeling for the Olympic Games and its flame.)

The Olympic flame was introduced to the modern Olympics in 1928. Ahead of each games, the torch is lit at Olympia in Greece — site of the ancient Olympic Games — and transported to the host city by a relay of runners, with the last using it to ignite a cauldron at the host stadium during the opening ceremony.

It has gone out at least twice during the Olympics, including at the 1976 Montreal Games when it was drowned in a rainstorm and was restarted with an official’s cigarette lighter. Organizers later lit it again with a backup flame from Olympia.

Beijing organizers plan to stage the longest torch relay in Olympic history — a 136,800-kilometer, 130-day route that will cross five continents.