When offered access to research facilities at the University of Göttingen by the infamous professor Woldemar Voigt in 1893, Agnes Pockels (1862-1935) politely declined, arguing her housewife duties didn’t allow her to move out of her household where she was required to take care of her frail parents. Two questions immediately arise from this. How did a housewife gain such scientific credibility and authority as to be invited to pursue her research in one of the best academic settings in Germany? And how can one explain her choice to continue her scientific investigations at home, whereas the access to an academic facility should have been perceived as the ultimate achievement for a young woman who had been excluded, like all her female contemporaries, from advanced education after the age 15?

In this paper, we will deal with these questions and examine how Agnes Pockels herself shaped her scientific practice inside the household, not only materially by using the kitchen sink and domestic appliances to study surface films on water, but also by choosing to take on another calling that was more in line with the expectations for German (single) women.