[1] Pockels became interested in fundamental research in surface science through observations of soaps and soapy water in her own home while washing dishes.

She devised a surface film balance technique to study the behavior of molecules such as soaps and surfactants at air-liquid interfaces.

By age 18, she began conducting experiments in her home to understand the physical properties of water and impurities, as an amateur chemist.

[2][8] As a result of her interests, by age 20, Pockels devised a slide trough for making quantitative measurements on the surface properties of soapy water and related substances.

[2][8] Pockels further developed her apparatus by placing a small disk (typically 6 millimeters in diameter), such as a button, on the surface of the water in the trough.

She then used a weighing scale (typically an apothecary's balance) to determine the force (weight) necessary to lift the disk from the water.

[7][8] Pockels' sliding trough design built on the prior findings of Ludwig Wilhelmy's plate method of measuring surface tension.

[9] Pockels' design influenced later investigators who improved on the method, leading to the modern Langmuir-Blodgett trough which is in extensive use in colloid and surface science in contemporary times.

When she plotted the surface tension on one axis of a graph compared to the position of the slider on her sliding trough, the graphical representation was a compression isotherm.

Having heard of the fruitful researches carried on by you last year on the hitherto little understood properties of water surfaces, I thought it might interest you to know of my own observations on the subject.

[6] The closing of her letter stated: "I thought I ought not to withhold from you these facts which I have observed, although I am not a professional physicist; and again begging you to excuse my boldness, I remain, with sincere respect,                                                  Yours faithfully,                                                  (signed) Agnes Pockels"[6] Lord Rayleigh forwarded Pockels's correspondence to the editor of the journal Nature, with a covering letter dated 2 March 1891.

The editor at the time was Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer who chose to publish the correspondence from Rayleigh and Pockels.

The earlier part of Miss Pockels' letter covers nearly the same ground as some of my own recent work, and in the main harmonises with it.

These communications emphasized her findings concerning the importance of purity and cleanliness of the equipment, including a recognition of difficulties in her own experimentation regarding previously unrecognized contamination.

Pockels developed a refined method of assessing monolayer films consisting of deposition of the compound on interest as a solution in benzene on the water surface in her sliding trough.

Nevertheless, she published a number of scholarly papers and eventually received recognition as a pioneer in the new field of surface science.

Commentators wrote: "When Langmuir received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1932, for his work in investigating monolayers on solids and on liquids, part of his achievement was [...] founded on original experiments first made with a button and a thin tray, by a young lady of 18 who had had no formal scientific training.

[1][7][16] Using an improved version of this slide trough, American chemist Irving Langmuir made additional discoveries on the properties of surface molecules, which earned him a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1932.

[17] Pockels' device is a direct antecedent of the Langmuir–Blodgett trough, developed later by Langmuir and physicist Katharine Blodgett.

Its purpose is to foster chemical education, aid chemistry teachers, and encourage young children in the pursuit of the natural sciences.

These documents and photographs of the Pockels family were retained in the library of the Royal Society of Chemistry at Burlington House.