above the surface of the electrically conductive support 26 the area of the electrically conductive platform 28 should be less than the area of the electrically conductive support 26 in order to focus the electric field the area of the electrically conductive platform 28 should be sufficient to hold at least one container and preferably a plurality of containers if an electrical signal derived from capacitance or impedance measurements is utilized to monitor the capacitance in the arrangement of fig1 the variation of the signal would depend not only on the distance from the electrically conductive tip 12 to the electrically conductive deck 16 the composition of the container 14 and the liquid u201c l u201d contained therein but also upon the geometry of the overlap area u201c a u201d in the present invention as illustrated in fig2 the overlap area u201c a u201d is clearly delineated i e by the overlapping of the electrically conductive element 22 and the platform 28 with the result that the signal would be more robust to variations in distance a desired feature for determination of level of liquid in a container in order to use the apparatus of this invention at least one container containing.