The Tempur-Pedic products, including mattresses, had their beginning in the manned-flight space program. NASA developed visco-elastic foam (a.k.a. "memory foam") in the early 1970's to temper the G forces astronauts endured during liftoff. It was called "temper foam."
A Swedish firm, Fagerdala, developed a version of temper foam for use by consumers. In 1991 Fagerdala introduced the Tempur-Pedic mattress, and Tempur-Pedic, Inc. was founded in Lexington, KY. Some of the first Tempur-Pedic models were known as Swedish Mattresses. The updated Swedish Mattress™ later became the Tempur-PedicOriginal Bed.
One feature of the Original Bed is that it is non-flip, meaning it is not designed to be turned over. This memory foam mattress is firm with a low level of conformity and is 8 inches thick. The terrycloth
cover is removable and washable. The material on the bottom of the mattress is designed to be non-skid so that it does not slip and slide on the foundation.
Of course, the signature feature of the Tempur-Pedic Original Bed is the Tempur visco-elastic memory foam. The role of this foam is to relieve pressure on parts of the body. It does this by conforming to those parts of the body which protrude, such as the shoulders and hips. This minimizes the soreness of pressure points in order to provide more restful sleep.
The Tempur Support Layer of 5.3-lb. memory foam is about 2.8 inches thick. It is fused to a base of firmer foam about 5 inches thick. The base layer itself is layered with high density foam, memory foam, latex, Marvelux and Omalux. The removable, washable terrycloth cover is claimed to be allergen-free and resistant to dust mites.
There do not seem to be many new mattresses of the Tempur-Pedic Original Bed available for sale. For instance, one retailer has only Twin and Twin X-Long on stock and several other retailers are out of stock.