100 YEARS OF TUBE BALL MILLS - A HISTORICAL REVIEW

In 1891 the patent specification for ''Ball mill with central feed and tangential discharge of the ground material'' was lodged with the Imperial Patent Office of the German Reich. This can be regarded as the foundation of our present continuously operating tube mills. The patent was also the starting point of a year-long lawsuit which the party opposing the patent set in motion for the purpose of dealing in detail with the stressing conditions and the axial material transport in tube mills. So the essential basis for the development of these mills to the present day had been created by as early as the start of this century. This development was not just a case of enlarging the geometrical dimensions of the mill cylinder, but in particular of improving the elements inside the grinding chambers and of adapting them better to different conditions of use.