BEAD MANUFACTURE. A bead is a small globule or ball used in necklaces, etc., and made of a great variety of materials.
Beads have been made from remote antiquity, and are found in early Egyptian tombs; variegated glass beads, found in the ground in certain parts of Africa, as Ashantiland, and highly prized by the natives as aggry-beads, are supposed to be of Egyp tian or Phoenician origin. Glass beads) have long been used for purposes of barter with savage tribes.
Czechoslovakia produces by far the largest proportion of the world's beads, and though the variety from that country alone is immense, the principal material employed is glass. From Venice come the Venetian beads that are ornamented in bright colours, the colouring matter being blown on by means of a tube. Carved ivory and bone beads come from China and Japan ; porcelain beads from France, Germany and Austria ; jug beads from Bavaria. Then there are loofa beads, noteworthy for their extremely light weight, mosaic beads and pound beads, so called because, being so very small, they are sold by the pound weight.
In glass beads there are two distinct methods of colouring. The cheaper kinds are dyed on the outer surface, while the better are coloured on the interior surface. Variegated effects are some times introduced by mixing a number of colours while the material of which the bead is made is in a hot and plastic form. Different finishes are identified by the application of trade terms, as, for example, the "satin" bead, which has a dull lustre.
The bead trade is essentially a fashion trade, and therefore fluctuates considerably from year to year, this applying both to beads used for necklaces and for the trimming of dresses. Cylin drical beads for the latter purpose are often known as "bugles." The Gablonz Industry.—The centre of the Czechoslovak bead industry is in the district of Gablonz, the exports of which amount to about half of the extensive artificial jewellery produc tion of that area. At one time the industry consisted primarily in the production of celluloid beads imitating sea corals in form and colour, but in modern times glass, wood, galalith, horn and tortoiseshell are employed. With the glass beads the raw material, either crystal or black or in various natural colours, such as topaz, aquamarine, amber, ruby, garnet, etc., is produced in the form of glass rods of about a yard in length, this work either being done on factory scale in glass works or at home by members of families. A special kind of the raw material is called "rocail," which is produced from a heavy lead glass. In Gablonz there are about 20 firms manufacturing beads, and production is also car ried on in neighbouring places. The industry suffered severely during the World War, but on the cessation of hostilities quickly re-established itself, and in a short space of time the number of exporters rose from about 200 to Too. (G. J. W.) in architecture, a small moulding hav ing a convex profile usually semi-circular. It is differentiated from the torus (q.v.), whose profile is similar, only by its smaller size. It is sometimes decorated by breaking its surface with rhythmic alternations of long, narrow, oval forms and short, reel-shaped or wheel-shaped forms, and is then known as the bead and reel. It is also sometimes decorated by a helical incision forming it into a rope or cable moulding (q.v.) or by carving it into a series of adjacent hemispheres. Its most common use is either above or below a larger moulding, or as part of a necking or horizontal division.