To the right of the majestic Valentine Falls is the site of the water mill. It was the largest, belonged to the town’s noble family and was the most important milling center in the area for as many as 200 years. This was controlled by a lever located to the left of the mill; turning the lever clockwise lowered the system, freed the blades, decreased the friction between the two stones, and the blades pushed by the force of the water made the top stone turn against the bottom stone, which instead remained stationary. The grain was placed in the hopper (maiolu), the same amount of grain that was in the hopper was the equivalent in flour that was in the wooden top. The grain came down from the nozzle, passed through the hole in the top stone, and through the rubbing of the stones was ground. Flour came out of the edges of the grindstone then deposited in the wooden top. Depending on the position of the lever they would get the coarsest or the finest flour. In order for the mill keeper to be able to grind grain 24 hours a day, a bell tied with a rope was used that hung on the outside of the hopper, while a wooden stick was tied to the inside of the rope. As the grain went down the bell also went down, when the grain ran out the bell would go and bang on the spinning stone and alert the janitor that the grain was finished. For Sadali of the period it was a revolutionary economic innovation, in fact with the application of water mills the hard work of grinding by donkey was supplanted and above all the large amount of water flowing into the town was better utilized.
