Offered here is an Olympic torch used in the 1976 Montreal Summer Games relay one of the more uncommon torches sought after by Olympic collectors. These were thefirst Games Summer or Winter to take place in Canada. Designed byGeorge Huel and Michael Daillaire the torch was innovative in severalrespects as it was developed in a laboratory to withstand heat up to850° F. The choice of olive oil as a fuel to honor the Olympics' Greekroots allowed for an orange-colored flame making it much morephotogenic than the blue flame from the butane gas used in Munich fouryears earlier. However olive oil was not strong enough for one torch toignite another during the relay so Nitropropane and Heptane were addedto yield a more potent fuel that produced the desired effect.

The torchrelay began in Olympia Greece taking the flame to Athens where it wastransmitted via Satellite to Ottawa Canada. From there the runnerstransported it to Montreal for the opening ceremonies. 1250 torcheswere made by Queensway Machine Products a relatively low numbercompared with other Games. The red aluminum handle/shaft has aperforated burner in machined aluminum on top painted in black. The redshaft is stamped with the '76 Montreal Olympic logo in white. The torchmeasures 26 inches (66 cm) in length and weighs less than 2 lbs. It shows light usage with little handling and few markings on the shaft.