The Faint Thump of Fulling Hammers

A fuller is someone who cleans, shrinks, and thickens cloth using moisture, heat, and pressure.

"As if at his very pillow, there came the booming of a foot pestle, more fearsome than the stamping of the thunder god, genuinely earsplitting. He did not know what device the sound came from, but he did know that it was enough to awaken the dead. From this direction and that there came the faint thump of fulling hammers against coarse cloth; and mingled with it--these were sounds to call forth the deepest emotions--were the calls of geese flying overhead."

Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji (11th Century).