according to their own System, as notes made in pencil indicate (ill. 50, p. 91). If additional 
proof had been required for the variability in size Systems, this would most likely have 
sufficed. 
Tiny beads appear under the name, “Rocailles and Seed Beads,” on the sample card from 
the “Czechoslovak dass Export Co. Ltd.,” in Gablonz, Bohemia (after 1945) in the sizes 
18/0 to 5/0 (ill. 51, p. 91). On sample cards from an unknown Company, bugles in lengths 
from 1 to 4 (= lines) are listed (ill. 53, p. 93). The bugles from the Breit Company in 
Schwäbisch-Gmünd are labeled with 1 to 10 and 4 x 25 (ill. 52, p. 93). 
From the accounts of Ludwig Breit we learn that the Ballotini (made from ground glass 
fragments, seived and rounded), had their own numbering System, probably because of 
their extremely small size: "... the size required most was the small size, no.8. The 
different sizes were 10, the smallest no. 8, the most populär nos. 7, 6 and 5. The beads 
no. 10 and no. 8 were smaller than 1 mm. The sizes 7 and 5 were not much in demand. The 
stilllargerbeads were calledscatterbeads...” 
Ballotini were were used for gluing onto walls in bars, for “bead screens” to project films onto in 
cinemas, for Street signs and even picture post cards. Scatter beads were used for children’s 
toys, and restaurants used them to clean their tin beer pipes (Breit 1987-90, pp. 71, 72). 
NUMBERING SYSTEMS IN OTHER AREAS 
The System of numbers and zeroes was also common in other areas, above all for 
measuring the gradations of fineness in wire. Systems and measuring instruments (ill. 54, 
p. 96) were not uniform, but could vary according to material (metal), country and factory. 
Sometimes the thickest wire had the smallest number. In a third method, the medium type 
was indicated by the smallest number (1) and then counted upwards and downwards. 
When a series of numbers began with 1, a certain number of zeroes was added to it, a 
procedure we already know from measuring glass beads (Prechtl 4/1833, pp. 144, 145). 
“The wire is differentiated according to numbers,”Keess writes already. “The flitter wires go, for 
example, from nos. 1 to 10, oreven 12, the sizes used forhorse bridles up to 16, the ‘plash' wires 
from nos. 1 to 6, the ‘bouillons’ wires from nos. 6 to 9, the ‘tirage' wires from nos. 7 to 8, the fine 
wires for gadrooning, spun objects, etc., up to nos. 9, 10, and 10 Wz” (Keess 2/1823, p. 457). 
A piece of metal called “wire measure, wire handle orwire guage”had “incisions orholes of 
different width, corresponding to the diameters of different kinds or numbers of wire. Every 
incision is labeled with the number that belongs to //."(Prechtl 4/1833, p. 149). Despite the 
inaccuracies that resulted in using them, these devices for measuring wire were held on to 
because they were easy to use. Prechtl Sketches the devices that had the same number of 
holes as the assortment numbers (ill. 54, p. 96). He also mentions the wire guage of the 
Englishman, Robison, which gave measurements of the wire in hundredths of an inch 
(Prechtl 4/1833, pp. 149-151). Watch springs were also measured with a spring measuring 
device, a sheet of brass with incisions on the edge of different widths that corresponded to 
the numbers (Prechtl 5/1834, p. 526). Every spring factory had its own special assortment; 
the spring guage from Carrisot in Geneva had 47 numbers, from the narrowest (no. 1 = 
slightly more than V2 line) to the widest (no. 47 = 2 % lines). The difference between the 
incisions was not quite V20 line. On a different Swiss spring measuring device the difference 
was slightly more than V15 line. The finest gradations are seen on a spring guage from 
Dutrambler in Geneva (nos. 1 to 34, with a difference of V23 line). Piano strings were also 
measured in numbers; the 31 types of Nuremberg piano strings in the numbers starting at 
9 V2 null as the largest type, running to 7 as the smallest. In Vienna there were 17 types, 
from the number 8 null to 9 (again the smallest!) (Harzer 1851, p. 109). The finest 
gradations of gold and silver wires were also identified by numbers: no. 1 was the smallest, 
no. 11 usually the largest (half-steps were also possible; the silverplated wire or 
“Paternoster wire” went from nos. 0 to 14, drawn silver from nos. 0 to 8, heavy wire from 
nos. 0 to 12, drawn brass from nos. 0 to 8 (Harzer 1851, p. 134). The length and thickness 
of pins were also measured in numbers (Harzer 1851, p. 197), and the sieves were also 
103