A simplified apparatus was tested for the distillation of H2S using hydriodic acid reagent in combination with bismuth sulphide detection. The digestion‐distillation flask is a modified Taylor tube. The tube facilitates sodium hypobromite digestion in a block digestor for total S analysis. The simplified apparatus does not include a water condenser and therefore distillation time is reduced. Thorough examination showed that the new apparatus gave essentially the same results as the Johnson‐Nishita method for sulphate and total soil S analyses. Transfer of all reduced sulphate into the collecting solution in the proposed apparatus took about one‐half the time that it took in the Johnson‐Nishita apparatus. Advantages of the proposed apparatus compared to Johnson‐Nishita and/or Tabatabai‐Bremner apparatus include low fabrication cost, flexibility to conduct both sodium hypobromite digested (total S) and undigested (sulphate S) analyses and economy of time for distillation.