A method for the measurement of gas and solids holdups in gas-liquid-solid multiphase devices is developed and tested. The method depends on measurements of hydrostatic pressures in the three-phase dispersion followed by interruption of gas flow, complete gas disengagement, and a second pressure measurement in the resulting two-phase solid-liquid slurry, over a short period of time (< 30 s). The proposed method is compared with results obtained with physical sampling of the multiphase flow in vertical up- and down-flow in a large airlift reactor (0.243 m diameter, 7.825 m overall height, 2.44 riser-to-downcomer cross-sectional area ratio). Applicability of the technique to slurries of glass beads in tap water is demonstrated for various sizes and concentrations of beads over a range of gas flow rates (0.070-0.150 x 10(-3) m bead diameter, 2500 kg . m(-3) solids density, 0.02-0.17 m . s(-1) superficial gas velocity).