Experimental measurements of the equilibrium in the S‐1 spheromak [M. Yamada, J. Sinnis, H. P. Furth, M. Okabayashi, G. Sheffield, T. H. Stix, and A. M. M. Todd, inProceedingsoftheUS‐JapanSymposiumonCompactTorusesandEnergeticParticleInjection(Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, NJ, 1979), p. 171] by use of magnetic probes inside the plasma show that the final magnetic equilibrium is one that has relaxed close to the Taylor (minimum‐energy) state, even though the plasma is far from that state during formation. The comparison is made by calculating the two‐dimensional &mgr; profile of the plasma from the probe data, where &mgr; is defined as &mgr;0 j∥/B. Measurements using a triple Langmuir probe proved evidence to support the conclusion that the pressure gradients in the relaxed state are confined to the edge region of the plasma.