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[[Image:Excelsior.png|right|thumb|350px|U.S. Patent 6,183,579 on a method of making cooling pads of excelsior, and illustrating such a pad]]
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Revision as of 17:49, 18 January 2009
Excelsior (sometimes called wood wool, especially in Europe[1] or when referring to finer grades[2]) is a wood product made of fibers (often from the aspen tree),[3] used in packaging, cushioning, stuffing of stuffed animals, and for the cooling pads in home evaporative cooling systems known as swamp coolers.[4]
Excelsior, dyed green, makes an annual appearance as the "grass" in Easter baskets,[5] or did in earlier decades before the prevalence of plastics.
Traditionally used in stuffing Teddy bears, it is still used in stuffing the muzzles of some collectible bears.[6]
In North America the term excelsior is sometimes used more generally, for any clean, loose material for shipment-packing of boxes or crates, such as styrofoam packing peanuts.[citation needed]
Excelsior is also used, banded into bale form, as archery backstops, comparable to how a straw bale would be used. If protected from the elements, it can last for many years. As locations wear, through repeated targetting, the bale can be dampened, such as from a running hose, and soaking it liberally. It expands and holds the water, just like a dry sponge would.[7]
External links
- Excelsior manufacture – Original report dated May 1948 – Reveiwed and reaffirmed 1961, Forest Products Laboratory, US Dept of Agriculture, Forest Service
References
- ^ "Packing materials". Department Bulletin (1385). United States Dept. of Agriculture: 46. May 1926.
- ^ Nelson Courtlandt Brown (1919). Forest Products, Their Manufacture and Use. J. Wiley. p. 425.
- ^ Roger E. Simmons (1912). Wood-using Industries of New Hampshire. I. C. Evans co. p. 53.
- ^ E. F. Lindsley (July 1984). "Solar air conditioners – the hotter it gets, the better they work". Popular Science. Times Mirror Magazines: 64–66. ISSN 0161-7370.
- ^ David Daniel (2005). The Marble Kite. Macmillan. p. 35. ISBN 9780312323516.
- ^ "The Tradition of the excelsior stuffing". HERMANN-Spielwaren GmbH. Retrieved 24 July 2006.
- ^ Larry Wise (1992). Bow and Arrow: The Comprehensive Guide to Equipment, Technique, and Competition. Stackpole Books. p. 912. ISBN 9780811724111.