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 Browns (a Turkish silk, produced at Bunn or Brows., in Asia Minor) singles, all English thrown, are used largely for ahoot. Bengal cannot be used for fine colours. litarabont is used for gauzes. Much of the silk-throwing and dyeing is done at Coventry. When the silk is dyed soft,—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 ample, 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 weighted by an additional quantity of dye, or by a mixture of sugar to increase Its apparent substance.
The fineness of the silk is determined by the number of warp lengths, measuring 72 yards, In the ounce ; ...n• warp silk, for instance, runs about eight score threads to the that length. One ounce in twenty is allowed for waste in the mannfacture 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 bobbins, and then again winding it off from a sufficient number of these bobbins at once round a large revolving perpendicular reel, called the warping-frame, 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 single-hand riaon-looet differs in no essential respect from that used for any other fabric, except that Its size and strength are proportional to the lighter material.
The Dotch ine-loom was introduced about ninety years ago. In this loom, instead of one piece of ribbon only, several are woven at once, four of the broadert width, or as many as twenty-four of the narrowest. Each warp has a separate shuttle. The batten extends acress the whole width of the loom ; the shuttles slide within groove. made in the batten • the driver is worked horizontally backwards and forward, by a ha file. At each motion, the shuttles are propelled by the crossbars of the driver across their proper warps in the corre sponding direction. The loom is 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 block, of wood fastened to the framework In front, which resist the batten at the proper point. The impulse of this stroke pushes hack the finished ribbon, which is hung with a weight attached to the end over a pulley at the top of the frame, or wound on a roller, just enough to draw forwards the warp, which is similarly hung over pulley, in order to receive the shuttle at the same point. Each warp has a separate reed or *140 attached to a horizontal roller, over which It pales on descending from the pulley. The sleigh is an instrument like a comb, ter keeping the threads separate. There are corresponding sleigh.. in the batten.
The 4-14-bar, or ter-toore, 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 aryl neglect. It is a hand power-loom worked by means of a long transverse handle or bar, which extends along the front of the loom, and is connected with wheels on each side, which communicate 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 lis.ses by which the different portious of warp are alternately raised. Forty treadles have been sometimes required to form an intricate pattern. Small figures produced in this manner are called ley& To execute more complicated patterns, fires or draws 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 kisses, 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 hautclisse. 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. [JACQUAIID APPARATUS.] The work is ordinarily given out in sets of grosses, consisting of two warps for each shuttle, each warp containing two pieces of 36 yards. The ribbons are cut out in pieces of 36 yards if they are of satin, and in half-piecea of 18 yards if they are sarseneta 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 of 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 cluing. of pattern, however, is often effected with very little IOW of time. Whenever it is practicable, the ends of the new warp aro fastened to those of the old before it is taken out of the loom, whereby the labour of passing them separately through the eyes or mails of the asses ia saved : this is called twisting in.