77 



RIBBON MANUFACTURE. 



RIBBON MANUFACTURE. 



the weaver the journey-h-ind, who supplies the labour, and has no 

 property in the looms. A modern innovation, encouraged by the last 

 system, is the employment of two hands to a loom, the one being 

 occupied uninterruptedly in shooting down, or passing the shuttle, 

 and making the ribbon ; the other in picking up, or fastening broken 

 threads, picking out knots, Ac. On the tttaiH-fariury tydem, the manu- 

 facturer get* every preparatory process done, and by the steam-power 

 one-half of the weaving process itself the shooting down : all that is 

 left for the weaver being the picking up and superintendence. The 

 profitable application of steam-power to silk-weaving was long con- 

 sidered to be almost impossible, so large a portion of time being 

 consumed in the handling and trimming of the silk, in proportion to 

 the time that the loom is in motion, and a consequent waste of power. 

 A small factory was built in Coventry in 1*31, for the purpose of 

 making the experiment on ribbons. It was burnt, however, during a 

 disturbance relating to prices; but within a few years there were 

 numerous steam-factories at work at Congletou, Leek, Derby, and 

 other places, which made large quantities of plain ribbons, chiefly 

 black sarsenets. The Coventry manufacturers bad more difficulties to 

 contend against, but ultimately they introduced steam-power under 

 certain circumstances. In these power ribbon-looms, each loom is 

 tended by one pair of bands, which pick up and keep the machinery in 

 order. The gain consists, not in a more rapid motion of the shuttles, 

 the delicacy of the materials not allowing of this, but in the shooting 

 down being seldom interrupted during the picking up, as in hand-loom 

 weaving ; in the greater regularity of the fabric, the same number of 

 shoots to the inch being uniformly maintained ; and also in the 

 addition of more shuttles, for which one workman suffices, the loom 

 being so constructed at to enable him to reach from the front over the 

 batten to the warps behind. 



Italian organzine silk, either thrown in Italy or in England from 

 Italian raw silk (and principally the last), is used for the warp of 

 the best English ribbons : Bengal and China organzine for inferior 

 qualities. China, Bengal, and Brouasa (a Turkish silk, produced at 

 Buna or Broussa, in Asia Minor) singles, all English thrown, are used 

 largely for shoot. Bengal cannot be used for fine colours. Marabout 

 is used for games. Much of the silk-throwing and dyeing is done at 

 Coventry. When the silk U dyed to/1, that is, when the gum is boiled 

 off, it comes back from the dyer with a loss of four ounces out of 

 sixteen in weight ; when dyed onple, the gum being partly retained, it 

 loses only one ounce and a half in sixteen. Inferior warp silk dyed 

 black, and of dark colours, is sometimes wtigkted by an additional 

 quantity of dye, or by a mixture of sugar to increase its apparent 



The fineness of the silk is determined by the number of warp 

 lengths, measuring 72 yards, in the ounce ; fine warp silk, for 

 instance, runs about eight score threads to the ounce of that length. 

 One ounce in twenty U allowed for waste in the manufacture of 

 the silk into ribbons; for all over that quantity the undertaker, or 

 journey-hand, is accountable. If the warp and shoot are delivered 

 ready wound, a quarter of an ounce in twenty is allowed. The prepa- 

 ration of the silk by winding it from the hanks on bobbin*, and then 

 (gain winding it off from a sufficient number of these bobbins at once 

 round a large revolving perpendicular reel, called the warping-fmne, 

 until the requisite length is obtained for the piece of silk or ribbon 

 that is to be manufactured, and likewise the weaving process itself, are 

 the same for the making of ribbons and for broad silk. 



The weaving of ribbons is conducted in many different ways. The 

 ingU-kaiui nAAon-ioo* differs in no essential respect from that used for 

 any other fabric, except that it* size and strength are proportional to 

 the lighter material. 



The Dutch e* ,iiu-lnom was introduced about ninety years ago. In 

 this loom, instead of one piece of ribbon only, several are woven at 

 once, four of the broadest width, or as many as twenty-four of the 

 narrowest Each warp has a separate shuttle. The batten extends 

 across the whole width of the loom ; the shuttles slide within grooves 

 made in the batten ; the driver U worked horizontally backwards and 

 forwards by a handle. At each motion, the shuttles are propelled 

 by the cross-bars of the driver across their proper warps in the corre- 

 sponding direction. The loom U worked by the hands, and with 

 treadles for the feet, like the single-hand. The stroke of the batten is 

 made with more precision than in the single-hand loom, by the inter- 

 position of blocks of wood fastened to the framework in front, which 

 resist the batten at the proper point. The impulse of this stroke 

 pnshss back the finished ribbon, which is hung with a weight attached 

 to the sod over a pulley at the top of the frame, or wound on a roller, 

 just enough to draw forwards the warp, which U similarly hung over a 

 pulley, in order to receive the shuttle at the same point. Each warp 

 has a separate reed or ilagk attached to a horizontal roller, over which 

 to pseses on descending from the pulley. The sleigh is an instrument 

 like a comb, for keeping the threads separate. There are corresponding 

 Webs in the batten. 



The d-io-Aor, or tar-loom, was invented and introduced into St. 

 Etienne by two Swiss brothers about eighty years ago. It has largely 

 contributed to the prosperity of the place, but the brothers died in 

 poverty and neglect. It is a hand power-loom worked by means of a 



long transverse handle or bar, which extends along the front of the 

 , and is connected with wheels on each side, which communicate 



loom, 



the motion. The shuttles are driven by means of a rack and pinion 

 across the warps. The advantage of the bar-loom consists in the saving 

 of labour by the intervention of mechanical means, instead of applying 

 manual power direct to the usual operations of weaving. From twenty- 

 eight to thirty of the narrowest and from six to eight pieces of the 

 broadest width are made at once : about eight ells of the former per 

 day, and from three to four of the latter. 



Several hand power-looms for ribbons have been contrived and 

 adopted, in all of which the requisite movements are performed by a 

 combination of levers, springs, cranks, and wheels. 



Figures on ribbons, as in other fabrics, are chiefly formed by omitting 

 the regular crossing of the warp and shoot in such a manner that a 

 difference of texture shall occur in the web so as to mark out any 

 pattern. This is effected in the single-hand loom by a multiplication 

 of treadles connected with the liases by which the different portions of 

 warp are alternately raised. Forty treadles have been sometimes 

 required to form an intricate pattern. Small figures produced in this 

 manner are called teyt. To execute more complicated patterns, tires 

 or dram are used. Tires are cords hung over the top of the loom, and 

 pulled by the hand as the figure may require ; they work like the 

 treadles, by raising the lisses, through the eyes of which are passed the 

 threads to form the pattern. Small patterns are still largely made in 

 the single-hand looms by means of treadles and tires. The French 

 single-hand loom of this description is called hautdisse. This was the 

 name of the loom used in weaving the best tapestry, in which the warp 

 was stretched perpendicularly, and hence it came to be applied to other 

 looms for weaving figures. The production of a large pattern in this 

 manner is difficult and tedious. Many skilful contrivances have been 

 devised by weavers and others for facilitating the operation, and among 

 others the draw-boy; but they were all superseded by the introduction 

 of the Jacquard machine. [JACQCABD APPARATUS.] 



The work U ordinarily given out in seti of grottti, consisting of two 

 warps for each shuttle, each warp containing two pieces of 3(5 yards. 

 The ribbons are cut out in pieces of 8(5 yards if they are of satin, and 

 in half-pieces of 18 yards if they are sarsenets or gauzes above the 

 narrower widths. A set of pieces cut out of a loom is called a length 

 and a set of half-pieces a half-length. The putting in of a fresh set o'f 

 warps is a tedious operation, which requires from two or three to four- 

 teen days, and proportionally lessens the earnings of the weaver. A 

 simple change of pattern, however, is often effected with very little 

 loss of time. Whenever it in practicable, the ends of the new warp are 

 fastened to those of the old before it U taken out of the loom, whereby 

 the labour of pa siring them separately through the eyes or mails of the 

 lisses is saved : this is called ticuting in. 



Ribbons are made according to a fixed standard of widths designated 

 by different numbers of pence, which once no doubt denoted the price 

 of the article, but at present have reference only to its breadth. The 

 French distinguish their widths by simple numbers. Thus the English 

 ribbons from a quarter of an inch to about 4J inches wide are called 

 from prxny width to fortf-penay width ; while the French have figures 

 from No. 1 to No. 60. All dressed ribbons, as satins, gauzes, &c., are 

 made in the loom one-twelfth of an inch wider than sarsenets, in order 

 to allow for the diminution of breadth which results from the length- 

 wise stretching they receive in the operation of dressing. Fine gauzes 

 require an allowance of two-twelfths. The French ribbons were 

 made formerly in pieces of 12 ells; their length is now the same 

 as that of the English. French fancy ribbons are generally made and 

 sold in ijarnilura ; that is, a broad and narrow piece taken together of 

 the same pattern. 



Sartmtt and luteitrioy ribbons are made by the simple and regular 

 alternation of the warp and shoot, as in plain cloth, called technically 

 ground. Lutestrings are sarsenets above the width of l'2d., and in 

 general of stouter make. By grvgram (French groi-graint) is meant a 

 variation in the texture, caused by the warp-threads passing over two 

 of the shoots at once, taking up one only : this often finishes the edge 

 of a ribbon, In satin ribbons, the glossy appearance is given by the 

 threads of the warp being laid chiefly on the surface, each thread of 

 the warp being crossed by the shoot only once in five times, as in 

 6-lisse satin, or once in eight times, as in 8-lisse or the superior satins. 

 French satins were formerly made from 6-lisse to 10-lisse. .Satins 

 are woven with the face downwards. The French satins are lighter 

 in make than the English, but have a peculiar richness and lustre, 

 owing to their superior silk. French ribbons in general have less 

 weight of silk than the English. The transparency of gauze ribbons 

 is produced by the kind of silk of which it is made the fine lunl- 

 twisted marabout, which leaves the interstices clear. One warp thread 

 only passes between each dent of the sleigh, and these are closer 

 together in general than lutestrings and satins. In fine gauzes, there 

 are 80 or more dents, and from 90 to 120 shoots to the inch. The plain 

 jpkuse ribbons made at Coventry called China gauzes are chiefly those 

 used for mourning white, black, and lavender, with satin or ground 

 stripes. I'lurelt, tafttiet, lava, and pcterihami, are other kinds of gauze 

 ribbon*. These ribbons all belong to tha plain trade. The fancy trade 

 comprises the manufacture of the same fabrics figured, under the heads 

 of figured sarsenets, satins, gauzes, &c. The figures are frequently pro- 

 duced in a different colour from the ground by the mixture of colours 

 in the warp, the colours being wurpud separately. In the intervals of 

 the figures the coloured threads arc carried along the under side of the 



