The pumping machinery is in duplicate, and each set consists of a horizontal condensing engine, with cylinder 18 in. diameter, stroke 30 in., fitted with Meyer's expansion gear, governor, fly-wheel 12 ft. diameter, weighing 4 tons, jet condenser with a single acting vertical air pump, situated below the engine room floor, and between the end of the cylinder and the main pump. Each main pump is 10 in. diameter, horizontal, double-acting, worked by a prolongation backward of the piston-rod. The valves and seats are of gun metal, 8½ in. diameter. The capacity is 350 gallons per minute, raised 206 ft. The air vessel is 21 in. internal diameter and 6 ft. high, and is fitted with a hand pump for renewing the supply of air if necessary. The rising main from the air vessel to the service tank is 9 in. diameter, and 307 yards long, laid up the steep slope of the hill on which the water tower is built. The boilers, two in number, are of the ordinary Cornish single-flued type, 5 ft. diameter by 18 ft. long, with flue 2 ft. 9 in. diameter, with three Galloway tubes. They were made by Messrs. Hill & Co., of Manchester. The engines and pumps were made by Mr. Albert Scragg, of Congleton, and the brick, stone, and builder's work was executed by Mr. Thomas Kirk. The waterworks were opened in the autumn of 1881, and since then have constantly afforded an abundant supply of water. There is also an independent gravitation system, also arranged by Mr. Blackshaw, for supplying an outlying part of the town. The cost of the works was exceedingly moderate, being not more than £12,000, including the water mains for distribution. PROCESS FOR SOFTENING HARD WATER. The available water of many villages and small towns is that of the chalk beds, but it is invariably very hard, and should be softened. We have received so many inquiries respecting a simple means of carrying out Clarke's water-softening process, that the following description of a set of apparatus devised for this purpose by Messrs. Law and Chatterton, MM.I.C.E., may interest many besides those who contemplate the construction of small waterworks supplied by the chalk springs. The apparatus, as made in various sizes by Messrs. Bowes, Scott, and Read, of Broadway-chambers, Westminster, we illustrate by the accompanying engravings.