In making small glass beads, a portion of melted glass, coloured or uncoloured, is taken from the crucible upon the end of a long iron blowpipe: the melted glass is then blown into a thick bulb, to which another iron' is attached exactly opposite to the first. The bull) is drawn out into a long narrow tube by two men, who pull the two pipes asunder. The narrow tube, many feet in length, is laid upon supports. The tube is cut into very short lengths to form the beads. If the beads are to be rounded they are either heated in an iron vessel kept in constant motion to prevent the beads adhering to each other while the edges just fuse, or they are revolved in a vessel with water, when the edges are rounded by mutual attrition.