The apparatus is used to demonstrates that the pressure at the bottom of a liquid column in a vessel depends only on the height of the column but not on the shape of the vessels.

The equipment consists of a tapered glass socket fitted into a base block held to a stand by a rod. The other side of the base block also has a rod holding a pivot supporting a lever. One end of the lever is a pressure disc against the bottom of the base block while the other end of the lever has a sliding weight hanger with weights. Glass vessels of different shapes can alternatively fit on the tapered glass socket. Height of water column is measured by a scale.