Who Invented The Cage Mill?
Nathan P. Stedman, son of the founder of Stedman Machine Company, is credited with inventing the cage mill. In 1894 he was awarded multiple patents for the device named a disintegrator – now known as the cage mill.
Early cage mill crushers were used principally to crush materials that were not particularly abrasive - corn, salt, coal, clay kaolin. By 1900, Nathan Stedman had built more than 100 cage mills. After its invention, numerous applications were discovered and soon cage mills were used for crushing chemicals, clay and fertilizer materials. It wasn't until the 1930s that the true value of cage mills as an agricultural limestone crusher, a size reduction mill and beneficiation was realized.