extremely fragile when found floating on the surface or thrown ashore, and rarely in an uninjured condition; the rays of their fins especially, and the membrane connecting them, are of a very delicate and brittle structure.
Fig. 1.—Trachypterus taenia.
In young ribbon-fishes some of the fin-rays are prolonged in an extraordinary degree, and sometimes provided with appendages (see fig. 2).
Fig. 2.—Young Trachypterus.
There are only two genera in the family, Regalecus, the oar-fish, and Trachypterus. In the former the length of the body is about fifteen times its depth. The head likewise is compressed, short, resembling in its form that of a herring; the eye is large; the mouth is small, and provided with very feeble teeth. A long many-rayed dorsal fin, of which the very long anterior rays form a kind of high crest, extends from the top of the head to the end of the tail; the anal and perhaps the caudal fins are absent; but the ventrals (and by this the oar-fish is distinguished from the other ribbon-fishes) are developed into a pair of long filaments, which terminate in a paddle-shaped extremity, but are too flexible to assist in locomotion. The whole body is covered with a layer of silvery epidermoid substance, which easily comes off and adheres to other objects.
Fig. 3.—Oar-fish.
Oar-fishes are the largest deep-sea fishes known, the majority of the specimens observed measuring 12 ft. in length; but some are recorded to have exceeded 20 ft. Their range in the great depths of the ocean seems to extend over all seas, but, however numerous they may be in the depths which are their home, it is only by rare accident that specimens reach the. surface. Thus from the coasts of Great Britain only about twenty captures are known in the long space of a century and a half, and not more than thirteen from those of Norway. Oar-fishes have been considered by naturalists to have given rise to some of the tales of “sea-serpents,” but their size as well as the facility with which they are secured when observed render this solution of the question of the existence of such a creature improbable. When they rise to the surface of the water they are either dead or in a helpless and dying condition. The ligaments and tissues by which the bones and muscles were held together whilst the fish lived under the immense pressure of great depths have then become loosened and torn by the expansion of the internal gases; and it is only with difficulty that the specimens can be taken entire out of the water, and preserved afterwards. Every specimen found has been more or less mutilated; and especially the terminal portion of the tail, which seems to end in a delicate tapering filament, has never been perfect;—it is perhaps usually lost as a useless appendage at a much earlier period of the life of the fish. Of Trachypterus, specimens have been taken in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, at Mauritius and in the Pacific. The species from the Atlantic has occurred chiefly on the northern coasts, Iceland, Scandinavia, Orkneys and Scotland. It is known as T. arcticus, in English the deal-fish; its Icelandic name is Vagmaer. Its length is 5 to 8 ft. Specimens seem usually to be driven to the shore by gales in winter, and are sometimes left by the tide. S. Nilsson, however, in Scandinavia observed a living specimen in two or three fathoms of water moving something like a flat-fish with one side turned obliquely upwards.
RIBBONISM, the name given to an Irish secret-society movement, which began at the end of the 18th century in opposition to the Orangemen (q.v.), and which was represented by various associations under different names, organized in lodges, and recruited all over Ireland from the lowest classes of the people. The actual name of Ribbonism (from a green badge worn by its members) became attached to the movement later, about 1826; and, after it had grown to its height about 1855, it declined in force, and was practically at an end in its old form when in 1871 the Westmeath Act declared Ribbonism illegal. See also under Ireland: History.
RIBBONS. By this name are designated narrow webs,
properly of silk, not exceeding nine inches. in width, used
primarily for binding and tying in connexion with dress, but also
now applied for innumerable useful, ornamental and symbolical
purposes. Along with that of tapes, fringes and other small wares,
the manufacture of ribbons forms a special department
of the textile industries. The essential feature of a ribbon
loom is the simultaneous weaving in one loom frame of two or
more webs, going up to as many as forty narrow fabrics in
modern looms. To effect the conjoined throwing of all the
shuttles and the various other movements of the loom, the
automatic action of the power-loom is necessary; and it is
a remarkable fact that the self-acting ribbon loom was known
and extensively used more than a century before the famous
invention of Cartwright. A loom in which several narrow webs
could be woven at one time is mentioned as having been working
in Dantzig towards the end of the 16th century. Similar looms
were at work in Leiden in 1620, where their use gave rise to so
much discontent and rioting on the part of the weavers that the
states-general had to prohibit their use. The prohibition was
renewed at various intervals throughout the century, and in the
same interval the use of the ribbon loom was interdicted in
most of the principal industrial centres of Europe. About
1676, under the name of the Dutch loom or engine loom, it was
brought to London; and, although its introduction there caused
some disturbance, it does not appear to have been prohibited.
In 1745, John Kay, the inventor of the fly-shuttle,
obtained, conjointly with Joseph Stell, a patent for improvements
in the ribbon loom; and since that period it has
benefited by the inventions applied to weaving machinery
generally.
Ribbon-weaving is known to have been established near St Étienne (dep. Loire) so early as the 11th century, and that town has remained the headquarters of the industry. During the Huguenot troubles, ribbon-weavers from St Étienne settled at Basel and there established an industry which in modern times has rivalled that of the original seat of the trade. Crefeld is the centre of the German ribbon industry, the manufacture of black velvet ribbon being there a specialty. In England Coventry is the most important seat of ribbon-making, which is also prosecuted at Norwich and Leicester.
