[Dragonharper]

Simply put, annealing glass is the process of raising the temperature of the glass to a point where the viscosity reduces enough to allow the glass to move and relieve any stress in the glass, and holding at that temperature until the stress is relieved. The next step is COOLING the glass in a manner that does not introduce any new stress into the glass. This is usually accomplished by cooling the glass slowly down past the lower stress point, the temperature at which any stress introduced into the glass is not permanent. And finally cooling the glass to room temperature at a rate that will not cause breakage.

One does not need high tech equipment to accomplish this, one does need to heat the glass to a sufficient temperature, hold it there, and cool the glass slowly. The ancients accomplished this in wood and coal fired ovens, we do it with digital controlled electric ovens. Will the Devardi device anneal beads, yes if you understand what need to happen and when. Is it a reliable and repeatable process, not really, one would need to error on the side of caution and as Lyssa stated, it was possible but a serious pain.

Contemporary Lampworking does an excellent job in explaining the annealing process AND the supporting mathematics. Once you grasp what is happening to the glass the physics and math become a guide to finding an annealing schedule that works for you. There is no magic.

I've tried to stay our of this discussion, but the Engineer/Scientist in me needed to state the facts. I have no intention of offending anyone, I am just stating the facts as I understand them.