Bead Manufactory at Venice. 79 



it ; indeed the establishment has fallen very much into decay. The 

 bead manufactories however presented a busy scene. In the first to 

 which they conducted us we found a large reverberatory furnace in 

 the centre, with a basin of liquid vitreous matter. A workman put in 

 the end of an iron rod and whirling it slowly around, until a sufficient 

 quantity of matter had attached itself, he withdrew the rod and form- 

 ed the mass into a rude hollow cone about six inches in diameter, 

 the apex being attached to his rod. Another workman had been 

 doing the same thing at an adjacent opening, and the bases of the 

 two cones being now brought together and united, a quantity of air 

 was thus inclosed. As soon as the junction was perfected, they car- 

 ried the mass to one side of the chamber and here strips of wood 

 were laid cross-wise along a passage and each one holding his rod in 

 hand they began to walk rapidly in opposite directions. As they did 

 so, the glass drew out and in less than a minute we had a tube of uni- 

 form bore and about one hundred and fifty feet in length. This one 

 was of about the thickness of a quill ; for the smallest beads they in- 

 crease the pace to a pretty rapid trot. When a sufficient number of 

 these tubes are formed, they are broken into lengths of about twenty 

 seven inches, and are then carried to an adjoining building called the 

 assorting house. Here they are assorted, the workman being able 

 from the feeling only, to arrange them in different boxes according 

 to their thicknesses and colors. From this house they are now car- 

 ried to another where the laborers are mostly women and boys. Each 

 one is seated in front of a kind of little anvil, having in the right 

 hand a thin plate of steel, nearly triangular in shape and with a blunt 

 edge : in the left he takes as many of the tubes as will form a single 

 layer between the thumb and fore finger, and advancing their ends 

 against a measure on the anvil, by a dexterous use of the steel, breaks 

 off from each tube a piece of sufficient length for a bead. The bits 

 fall into a box and are about twice as long as the thickness of the bead, 

 (if a common one) is intended to be. 



The next operation I thought the most interesting one. The boxes 

 are carried into a large chamber with a furnace in the center of it. 

 A substance which I took to be ashes is moistened and made into 

 a paste, and the bits of tubes are worked about in it until the holes 

 are completely filled ; they are then put into a sheet iron cylinder 

 about eighteen inches in length and a foot in width, with an iron han- 

 dle to it, and about twice as much sand being added, the cylinder is 

 thrust into the furnace and subjected to a rotatory motion. In a 



