Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Rive de Gier

RIVE DE GIER, a town of France, in the department of Loire, situated 13 miles to the east-north-east of St Étienne, on the Lyons Railway at the head of the canal of Givors on the Gier. The town, which is constantly enveloped in a dense cloud of smoke, and presents a dirty and unattractive appearance, is principally dependent on the coal industry, there being fifty pits in the basin of the Gier, with an annual output of over 19,000,000 bushels. There are twenty-two coke and lamp black furnaces, and five glass works, the products of which—coloured glass and so-called Nuremberg mirrors—are celebrated, on account of the fineness and purity of the sand found on the banks of the Rhone and the Saône. Mining machinery, railway plant, and coarse ironmongery are also manufactured, and there are iron and steel works. A large number of persons are also employed in winding and spinning silk and in tape-weaving. The population in 1881 was 15,760.

Rive de Gier is a place of some antiquity, as appears from remains of Gallo-Roman buildings, and mosaics and coins found at various times. In the 11th century the canons of Lyons were its superiors. At a later period the town was surrounded by a wall and protected by a fortress, of which, however, but few traces are visible. In the time of Henry IV. the working of the mines had already given to the locality a measure of importance which has steadily increased. At one time it was feared that the coal basin, which was considered distinct from that of St Étienne, would soon be exhausted, but it has now been proved that the two are in reality one, and that they have a long future before them.