[1] A large number of the lifts and baling presses that used the system had hydraulic packings manufactured by John Talent and Co.Ltd.

By the 1960s, there were serious concerns about the state of some of the equipment and corrosion in the high-pressure mains, and in 1968 the corporation announced its intent to switch the system off, which it did at the end of 1972.

The grade II listed pumping station built in Baroque style at Water Street has a new life as part of the People's History Museum, while one of its pump sets has been restored and is displayed at the Museum of Science and Industry, where it is part of a larger display about hydraulic power.

While Joseph Bramah had registered a patent for the distribution of high-pressure water via a ring main at the London Patent Office on 29 April 1812,[2] and engineer William Armstrong had installed hydraulic systems for single customers from the 1840s,[3] the first installation of a public hydraulic power network became operational in Kingston upon Hull in 1876.

[5] The corporation had the advantage over a private company in that it did not have to apply for permission to dig up the streets to install the network of high-pressure water mains.

Its working pressure was set at 1,120 pounds per square inch (77 bar), much higher than the 700 pounds per square inch (48 bar) of the London system, because it was expected that much of the power would be used for baling cotton, and the extra pressure was dictated by the design of existing baling equipment.

[6] Pressure was supplied by six triple-expansion steam engines, rated at 200 hp (150 kW) each, and was maintained by two hydraulic accumulators, with pistons of 18-inch (460 mm) diameter, a stroke of 23 feet (7.0 m), and loaded with 127 tonnes.

The borehole at Whitworth Street was 613 feet (187 m) deep, and water at all three was raised by compressed air delivery systems, which lasted until 1948, when they were superseded by submersible pumps.

Although not ideal for a diminishing network, because they were fixed speed devices, they provided a back-up system if there were problems at Water Street.

[12] By 1968, the length of pressure main was reduced to 26 miles (42 km), and the Waterworks Committee gave notice to all 120 customers that the system would be shut down in four years' time.

The third station at Water Street, on the banks of the River Irwell was completed in 1909, and was designed in Baroque style by architect Henry Price.

One of the pump sets has been moved to the Museum of Science and Industry, where it has been restored to working order and forms part of a display about hydraulic power.