When the company was founded, it was called "Osaka Turbine & Water Turbine Works". As the name suggests, the company's main business was the manufacture and sale of water turbines, turbine pumps and other equipment, and not anything to do with "powder". There are several reasons why the company became involved in "powder". One of them was that Eiichi Hosokawa, the first president of the company, had worked for the second president of Shimadzu, Genzo Shimadzu. At the time, Genzo was researching the crushing of lead for storage batteries, and Eiichi was helping to develop and manufacture them. When Eiichi set up his own business, Genzo gave him two lathes, which he used to start the company. As a side note, Mr. Genzo later founded the Nippon Battery Co. (at present,  GS Yuasa Internationl Ltd. and "GS" is his initials)
Another reason for Eiichi's interest in grinding was the knowledge he gained through his business with MOMOTNI JUNTENKAN, one of the main suppliers at the time, that the performance of powders, especially grinding mills, has a great influence on the quality of the final product. The final push came in 1927, when Eiichi was intrigued by a catalogue of fine grinding machines from the American company Raymond.
After this, Eiichi devoted himself to the research and development of fine grinding machines and spent three years developing the Micron Mill. The Micron Mill had a unique structure and used three different forces: impact, shear and friction. The micron mill was a big hit and became a major pillar of the company's success.