Through her experiences carrying out domestic chores, especially dishwashing, Pockels became interested in the effect of soaps on water and more generally on the effect of impurities on water and soapy water. By age 18, she began conducting experiments in her home to understand the physical properties of water and impurities, as an amateur chemist.
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. Specifically, this consisted of a trough, made of metal and rectangular in shape, roughly 70 centimeters (cm) long, 5 cm wide, and 2 cm deep. The trough was filled with water. A metal strip of about 1.5 cm width was laid on top of the water across the width of the trough so as to divide the surface of the water in two parts.  There was a ruler along the length of the trough so that the position of the metal strip, and therefore the surface area of each of the two parts of the trough, could be determined as the strip was moved along the length of the trough.
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. By comparing the forces required to lift the disk from pure water to water containing impurities, she devised a direct measure of surface tension. This apparatus enabled her to investigate the surface forces of mono-molecular films, the surface tension of emulsions and solutions, the effect of impurities on the physical properties of water, and providing an understanding of surfactancy.
Pockels sliding trough design built on the prior findings of Ludwig Wilhelmys plate method of measuring surface tension. 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.