[2] A small loop is made in the end of a platinum wire and heated in a Bunsen burner flame until red hot.
It is then dipped into powdered borax and held in the hottest part of the flame where it swells up as it loses its water of crystallization and then shrinks, forming a colourless, transparent glass-like bead (a mixture of sodium metaborate and boric anhydride).
The bead and adhering substance is then heated in the lower, reducing, part of the flame, allowed to cool, and the colour observed.
[2] Characteristic coloured beads are produced with salts of copper, iron, chromium, manganese, cobalt and nickel.
After the test, the bead is removed by heating it to fusion point, and plunging it into a vessel of water.