Ribbons are made according to a fixed standard of widths designated by different numbers of pence, which once no doubt deuoted 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 44 inches wide are called from penny width to fortp.penny width; while the French have figures from So. 1 to No. 60. All dressed ribbons, as satins, gauzes, &c., are made in the loom one-twelfth of an Inch wider than sarseucts, in order to allow for the diminution of breadth which results from the length wise stretching they receive in the operation of dressing. Flue 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 garnitures ; that is, a broad and narrow piece taken together of the same pattern.
Sarsenet and lulestrisg ribbons are made by the simple and regular alternation of the warp and shoot, as in plain cloth, called technically ground. Lutestrings are earsenets above the width of 12d., and in general of stouter make. By grogram (French grosgrains) 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 5-lisse satin, or once in eight times, as in 8-lisse or the superior satins. French satins were formerly made from Mimeo 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 hard twisted marabout, which leaves the interstices clear. One warp thread only passes between each dent of the sleigh, and those are closer together In general than hitestrings and satins. In fine gauzes, there are 80 or more dents, and from 90 to 120 shoots to the inch. The plain gauze ribbons made at Coventry called China gauzes are chiefly those used fur mourning—white, black, and lavender, with satin or ground stripes. Florets, toffeties, loves, and petersham., aro other kiwis of gauze ribbon. These ribbons all belong to the plain trade. The fancy trade comprises the manufacture of the same fabrics figured, under the heads of figured sarsencts, satins, gauzes, &c. The figures are frequently pro duced In a different colour from the ground by the mixture of colours iu the warp, the colours being warped separately. In tho intervals of the figures the coloured threads are carried along the under aide of the ribbon ; it is mid to have a doable or treble figure, according to the number of colours passiug through each dent. In some ribbons In ',articular—these threads are cat away by the scissors after the ribbon in made. Thin is called dipping. A change of colour in the shoot is effected by the use of different shuttles; in brocades the figure is made by small additional ehuttles, thrown in prutially across the ribbon as the pattern may require, the connecting threads of shoot being clipped of By damask is meant the laying of the warp over the shoot to form the figure, in the manner of satin. The patterns are
senetimet geometrical, but more frequently combinations of leaves, sprigs, or fowers. In the superior French ribbons, groups and wreaths of flowers are executed with the richness and variety of hand-embroi dery. The French are continually introducing novelties in colouring and In texture. Sono fancy ribbons are of a plain texture, but varied in colouring ; they are shot or woven in canines, stripes, bars, or the called in the trade plaids ; these last, which require the shuttle to be changed very frequently, are still made in the single-hand loom. In skot ribbons the warp and the shoot are of different colours. A peari-olge 14 frequently given to all kinds of ribbon except the narrower widths of sarsenet. This is formed by tfio shoot panning over horse-hairs placed outside the warp parallel with it, and raised in like manner by the limes; as the hairs aro drawn out, the silk is left in loops at the edge. Many varieties of ornamental edges, as scollops, fringes, kc., are produced by drawing in. The shoot in this cmae stops short of the edge of the ribbon, catching in an additional thread of silk, sometimes of a different colour, which it draws in in its place, and which is delivered from 6 bobbin at the back of the loom, and is in • manner darned into the ground of the ribbon. Clouding is a peculiar rnanagement in the dyeing, by which A change of hue is pro duced in the same thread of silk. The silk, already warped, is tied up and wound closely round with packthread et regular intervals of moro or loss than an inch, eo that the intermediate spaces only are pene trated by the dye. In one species of fancy ribbon, called Chine, the figures are printed or painted on the warp after it is prepared for the loom, and afterwards woven in by the shuttle; others are embossed. Ribbons aro entered by passing two pieces together between two cylin ders, ono of which has a heater within it ; the irregular pressure of the inequalities of the two surfaces of silk against each other produces a wary appearance. To smooth and stiffen satin ribbons, they are colendered, or pressed between heated steel cylinders, and afterwards drereed, or passed over a email cylinder covered with flannelovhich is moistened with a Rico made from buffalo hides, and then over a large one of heated steel. Gauzes also are dressed, and sometimes even lute string& The French goods are in general better dressed than the Engliah. The blocking of the finished ribbons, or the winding them on cylindrical pieces of wood, is generally done at the warehouse of the manufacturer. Galloon, and doubles are strong thick ribbons, princi pally black, used for bindings, ahoe-strings, &a The narrow widths aro called galloons ; the broader, doubles. Italian silk is used in making the best qualities only, Bengal for the commoner. Fowls are coarse narrow ribbons shot with cotton, used for similar purposes. labbon micas are manufactured in Spitalfields, and at St. Etienne : they are also made at (,'refold, in Rhenish Prussia, which has long been a principal seat of the velvet manufacture. In gold and silrer ribbons, a silk thread of simiLar colour is 4tound round by a flattened wire of the metal, and afterwards woven. Lyon was at one time particularly celebrated for its fabrics of this kind.