Ribbon, Riband, or RIBBAND (a Celtic word). The principal ribbon manufacturing centre is Coventry in England, and St Etienne and Basel abroad, as also, more recently, the middle Rhine. Ribbons were also formerly made in Derby and Leek. In Coventry the ribbon industry was commenced by Bird at the beginning of the 18th century. Coventry was at that time a city of 12,817 inhabitants. The population increased with the progress of the ribbon industry, until in 1861 it was 41,638. In 1860 there were 8886 looms; but in 1885 not one-third of this number was employed, and the number is much less now. In 1861 there were 40,600 people dependent upon the ribbon trade, in 1881 not more than a fourth. The ruin and migration of the trade to the Continent arose from two causes—first, strikes, particularly the great one of 1860; second, the French treaty of 1860, before which this branch was protected by a duty of 15 to 30 per cent. The great competition of Basel and St Étienne then soon ruined the production of Coventry, for at these old centres labour was then much cheaper, the hours of work longer, and taste and style superior, particularly at St Étienne. Crefeld, Moscow, and especially Paterson in New Jersey, are also manufacturing centres. Amongst the various kinds of ribbons woven in Coventry are the following: Taffeta, gros-grain, twill, satin, satinette, ottoman-satin, and terry, plush, brocade, faille, plaids, watered satins, birthday-ribbons, and book-markers, sarsnets, orientals, waistbands, and other plain and figured narrow fabrics. Of the names which indicate the kind of groundwork, gros-grain is a ribbed silk; plush, a velvety or pile surface; satin, a smooth polished surface, &c.; and there are mixtures of these various fabrics, generally woven in stripes, faille with satin, satin with terry, velvet with satin, plain and figured in conjunction, making an infinite variety of decorative effects both in weaving and colour.
The construction of the fabric of a ribbon is like that of broad silks—viz. the threads or warp (Fr. chaîne) lengthwise; those at right angles, or shot across the ribbon, the shute or weft (Fr. trame). The warp consists of many threads, the shute which interweaves the warp of one, or at most a few only, according to the number of colours or style of fabric required. There are two kinds of looms or methods of weaving, hand-loom and power-loom, the latter having gradually but surely superseded the former, except for very artistic work. These two looms are also of two kinds, those which weave plain goods and those which weave figured or patterned work. The latter are called Jacquard looms (see WEAVING); in these every warp-thread is so isolated as to be under mechanical control, and can be raised or not independently of every other thread. These warp-threads are raised by means of the 'harness' to allow of the shute to pass between the whole or parts of the warp-threads according to the pattern or style required. The harness is composed of 'leishes,' the purpose of which is to raise at will the warp-threads, each of which requires one leish. The term 'shed' is applied to the warp when separated horizontally by the harness for the shuttle to pass between; this is called the 'opening,' that in the upper surface being termed the top shed, and the lower part the bottom shed. The shuttle contains the quill in which has been wound the 'filling,' which is a portion of the shute or weft-thread, and is propelled in the shuttle between the warp-threads by hand or by other power, generally steam-power. In front of this complicated mechanism is the 'slay' or 'reed,' which is a comb-like apparatus through which the warp-threads pass before they receive the shute into its resting-place in the fabric. The Jacquard arrangement is placed on the top of the loom, and consists of perforated cards, with the requisite machinery to work them. See SILK.