Wood wool

[3] According to E. Littell,[4] 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.

This is the earliest description of the material by this name cited by the Oxford English Dictionary, though the term "excelsior mattress" had appeared in print as early as 1856.

[12] In 1906, the now-common use of wood wool 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 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 number 4405.00 is applied to wood wool by the World Customs Organization in the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS).

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.

[25][26] Wood wool is cut from "bolts" (round, halved, quartered, or otherwise split logs[19]) of poplar[27] (for example aspen[28]), pine, spruce or eucalyptus.