The oldest ancestor of the belt grinder is the sandpaper which was first used in 1760. It was not until 1900 to 1910 that simple sandpaper and emery cloth, a type of abrasive material, was used in mechanical processes. They were used in an endless belt form in the wood industry. This is considered the earliest form of the belt grinder. In 1930, the belt grinding process was used in metal processing. From then on, the use of abrasive belts became widely popular and gave way to the development of modern belt grinders. It is difficult to trace the first modern belt grinder invention because of the lack of data. Nevertheless, a patent for a contact wheel belt grinder was filed in 1956 by inventor Cecil D. Barnes. The patent file describes the contact wheel belt grinder as a machine that is used to remove flash and mold marks from castings, finish metals, and grind and polish operations.