Excelsior (wood wool)
Encyclopedia
Swamp cooler
An evaporative cooler is a device that cools air through the evaporation of water. Evaporative cooling differs from typical air conditioning systems which use vapor-compression or absorption refrigeration cycles. Evaporative cooling works by employing water's large enthalpy of vaporization...
s, for erosion control
Erosion control
Erosion control is the practice of preventing or controlling wind or water erosion in agriculture, land development and construction. Effective erosion controls are important techniques in preventing water pollution and soil loss.-Introduction:...
mats, and as a raw material for the production of other products such as bonded wood wool boards.
Terminology
The term wood wool is used in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to describe finer grades of excelsior.
The U.S. Forest Service stated in 1948 and 1961 that, "In this country the product has no other general name, but in most other countries all grades of excelsior are known as wood wool. In the United States the name wood wool is reserved for only a small proportion of the output consisting of certain special grades of extra thin and narrow stock."
The U.S. Standard Industrial Classification
Standard Industrial Classification
The Standard Industrial Classification is a United States government system for classifying industries by a four-digit code. Established in 1937, it is being supplanted by the six-digit North American Industry Classification System , which was released in 1997; however certain government...
Index SIC is 2429 for the product "Wood wool (excelsior)". The same term is used by the United States for the external trade number under which wood wool is monitored: HTS Number: 4405.00.00 Description: Wood wool (excelsior); wood flour
Wood flour
Wood flour is finely pulverized wood that has a consistency fairly equal to sand or sawdust, but can vary considerably, with particles ranging in size from a fine powder to roughly the size of a grain of rice. Most wood flour manufacturers are able to create batches of wood flour that have the...
.
The number 4405.00 is applied to wood wool by the World Customs Organization
World Customs Organization
The World Customs Organization is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. With its worldwide membership, the WCO is recognized as the voice of the global customs community...
in the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS)
Harmonized System
The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System of tariff nomenclature is an internationally standardized system of names and numbers for classifying traded products developed and maintained by the World Customs Organization , an independent intergovernmental organization with over 170...
.
Grades and classifications
The 1973 U.S. federal procurement specification PPP-E-911, cancelled in 1991, categorized "wood excelsior" products according to the following table of terms and dimensions:
TABLE I. Strand size for type I class A and B excelsior
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Thickness of strand Width of strand
Grade Nomenclature Inch Inch
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1 Superfine wood wool 0.006 0.020
2 Wood wool 0.012 0.020
3 Extra fine 0.015 0.031
4 Fine 0.018 0.031
5 Medium 0.021 0.041
6 Coarse or ribbon 0.015 0.167
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Applications
Excelsior is used in packaging, cushioning, for stuffing plush toys or real animal bodies, (taxidermyTaxidermy
Taxidermy is the act of mounting or reproducing dead animals for display or for other sources of study. Taxidermy can be done on all vertebrate species of animals, including mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians...
) and for cooling pads in home evaporative cooler systems known as "swamp coolers."
Excelsior, dyed green, makes an annual appearance as the "grass" in Easter baskets, or did in earlier decades before the prevalence of plastics.
Traditionally used in stuffing Teddy bear
Teddy bear
The teddy bear is a stuffed toy bear. They are usually stuffed with soft, white cotton and have smooth and soft fur. It is an enduring form of a stuffed animal in many countries, often serving the purpose of entertaining children. In recent times, some teddy bears have become collector's items...
s, it is still used in stuffing the muzzles of some collectible
Collectible
A collectable or collectible is any object regarded as being of value or interest to a collector . There are numerous types of collectables and terms to denote those types. An antique is a collectable that is old...
bears.
Excelsior has other applications, such as mats and blankets for erosion control, garden mulch, dog bedding, hutch bedding, and udder cleaning for dairy cattle.
It is also used for the production of cement-bonded wood wool boards.
Banded into bale form, excelsior is also used in archery backstops, comparable to how a straw bale would be used for the same purpose. If protected from the elements, an excelsior archery backstop can last for many years. If sections of it wear down because of repeated targeting, the bale can be soaked liberally since it then expands and holds water, just like a dry sponge.
Properties
Wood wool fibers can be compressed and when the pressure is removed they resume their initial volume. This is a useful property for minimizing their volume when shipping. Due to its high volume and large surface area, wood wool can be used for applications where water or moisture retention is necessary. The width of wood wool fibers varies from 1.5 to 20 mm, while their length is usually around 500 mm (depending on the production process).In the UK there are specifications for dimensions, pH, moisture content and freedom from dust and small pieces, set by British Standard BS 2548 for wood wool for general packaging purposes. This standard was originally issued in 1954 and subsequently re-issued in 1986.
When these fibers are bonded with cement or magnesite, bonded wood wool boards are produced. Slabs of bonded wood wool are considered environmently friendly construction and insulation materials because they do not contain organic binders.
Production
Excelsior is cut from "bolts" (round, halved, quartered, or otherwise split logs) of poplarPoplar
Populus is a genus of 25–35 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar , aspen, and cottonwood....
(for example aspen
Aspen
Populus section Populus, of the Populus genus, includes the aspen trees and the white poplar Populus alba. The five typical aspens are all native to cold regions with cool summers, in the north of the Northern Hemisphere, extending south at high altitudes in the mountains. The White Poplar, by...
), pine
Pine
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...
, spruce
Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...
or eucalyptus
Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of flowering trees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Members of the genus dominate the tree flora of Australia...
. For evaporative cooler pads, the dominant source is the aspen
Aspen
Populus section Populus, of the Populus genus, includes the aspen trees and the white poplar Populus alba. The five typical aspens are all native to cold regions with cool summers, in the north of the Northern Hemisphere, extending south at high altitudes in the mountains. The White Poplar, by...
.
Wood wool can be produced in either horizontal or vertical shredding machines.
A possible further processing option is washing, which removes dust. Wood-wool processing may involve drying to reduce moisture in compliance with local requirements, as in the UK.
Finally, wood wool can be dyed to produce a variety of colored products.
History
A different product was once known as "wood wool," as well as "pine needle-wool," or "pine wood-wool." According to E. Littell, it was produced in Breslau, Silesia (today Wrocław, Poland) by von Pannewich, who mentioned that in 1842 five hundred counterpanes made of it were purchased for a hospital in Vienna. The process was chemical and made use of the leaves (needles) of Scots PineScots Pine
Pinus sylvestris, commonly known as the Scots Pine, is a species of pine native to Europe and Asia, ranging from Scotland, Ireland and Portugal in the west, east to eastern Siberia, south to the Caucasus Mountains, and as far north as well inside the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia...
.
In England, yet another product known as wood wool was produced by the chemical breakdown of wood strips by means of sulphurous acid, for use in such applications as absorbent material in surgical dressings. Another application of this product was use in sanitary towels, as shown in advertisements from 1885–1892 in Britain for "wood wool diapers" or "sanitary wood wool sheets". European "wood wool" was known in America in the last nineteenth century as being distinctly different from excelsior.
The wood wool that is the topic of this article is what has traditionally been known as excelsior in the United States. Fifteen U.S. patents related to "slivering machines" for producing the small wood shreds "known as excelsior" were listed in 1876.
The earliest, a machine for "Manufacturing wood to be used as a substitute for curled hair in stuffing beds" was patented in the U.S. in 1842; however, the product had no specific name when the process was first patented.
The 1868 patent, "Improved capillary material for filling gas and air carburettors," was for a new use for "fibres torn from the wood by suitable machinery" to be "sold and used as filling for mattresses, its commercial name being 'excelsior'." This is the earliest description of the material by this name cited by the Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
, though the term "excelsior mattress" had appeared in print as early as 1856.
In 1906, the now-common use of excelsior in the cooling pads of evaporative coolers appeared in a patent that stated, "I have found that excelsior makes a very cheap and good material for this purpose."
In the beginning of the 20th century wood wool was used as a raw material for producing wood wool panels in Europe, especially in Austria. By 1930, wood wool cement boards were being widely produced.
In the 21st century, excelsior appears in numerous patents for erosion
Erosion
Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...
control and sediment control
Sediment control
A sediment control is a practice or device designed to keep eroded soil on a construction site, so that it does not wash off and cause water pollution to a nearby stream, river, lake, or bay...
methods and devices; for example, the 2006 "Sediment control device and system." A few late-twentieth-century patents on these uses refer to "excelsior/wood wool."