To the best of my understanding, when a pope dies the head of the college of cardinals bangs the corpse on the head with a silver mallet. If he doesn't stir then they declare the pope "truly dead". After that the late pope's signet ring is smashed to keep fraudulent documents from being post dated. They lock up his apartments, they go through all the funeral rituals etc. Then a week or so later the cardinals lock themselves in the cathedral and start voting on a new pope.
That's when everyone starts looking for the white smoke. The signal that "we have a pope".
(disclaimer: am not a Catholic, just relaying what some Catholic friends have told me)
Dang..surely they dont do the hammer to the head these days in the days of modern medicine
I wonder how many times a Pope has been hammered in the head and was still alive and lived to tell about it.