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This is a more "modern" house with tiles covering the outer wall and a tin roof with ornate gutters. This style roof can be seen all over Romania and is often installed by Roma (Gypsies). This miller owns a versatile water wheel that powers a grist mill, a fulling mill, a thresher and a buzz saw. The fulling mill is his primary source of income. He receives greasy, coarsely woven woolen fabric which is soaked in hot soapy water and pounded by wooden mallets repeatedly until it nearly becomes woolen felt. The objective is not to make thick felt, but to only to close the yarns in the fabric. The mallets are lifted in succession by large teeth on a shaft turned by the water wheel, then allowed to fall onto the fabric. The head of each mallet is about 300 X 300 millimeters. After the pounding and rinsing, the fabric is stretched on racks to dry. |