Automatic Sky Lantern

A simple wooden or metal frame, a paper shell, and a source of flame are all you need to create a sky lantern. They first took to the sky as military signals above the battlefields of ancient China, and are sometimes still called Kongming lanterns after a legendary 3rd century Chinese general who first put them to use. Today, people all around the world view them as good luck symbols.

A sky lantern works like a hot air balloon. The candle flame bellow the shell warms up the air inside it, causing the lantern to float up and stay airborne until the candle is extinguished. Stiff edges near the bottom of the shell are meant to keep the flame away from the potentially flammable material. However, the lantern can malfunction or be swept by wind, bringing it into contact with dry vegetation or flammable materials on the ground.