Can you use it in your mouth?

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Hi!  My name is Mike at Bel-Art/H-B Instrument & SP Scienceware.
Unfortunately, no.  We do not sell any thermometers suitable for taking body temperatures.  These types of thermometers are designed completely different.  First, the temperature range is usually only 10 degrees, from 96° to 106°, so you can get accurate readings between the critical temperatures.  Secondly, These old-time, “shake-down”  thermometers we grew up with were actually designed to go to the temperature, and STAY at that temperature until the doctor or nurse held it up to read it.  That makes sense because in the short time from the patient’s mouth to the doctor’s reading, the temperature could have started going back down to room temperature.  
This may not seem like a big deal, but remember 98.6 degrees in normal and 99 degrees is a low fever.  Just 0.4 degrees made the difference between sick or not sick.  So it was important that the liquid inside the thermometer didn’t move until the temperature was read.  
How did they manage to design a thermometer with this capability?  Easy.  At the bottom of each thermometer, just above the bulb of liquid, the small capillary inside that the liquid travels up has a ‘trap’, a little ‘S’ turn designed into it!  YES, you are right in thinking that it took some pretty skilled glasswork to make these, but that is the way it is done.  This is just like a real small version of your sink’s ‘S’-trap below the drain.  The dimensions of that small capillary varied depending on the length of the thermometer and the temperature range of the thermometer.  These types of thermometers are called “Maximum Registering” because they stay at the highest temperature they reached until they could be accurately read and the temperature recorded.
So finally, to get the liquid back down into the bulb, yup, you guessed it, the nurse or the doctor had to ‘shake it down’, getting the liquid passed the ‘s’ bend and back to the bulb.
I hope this answered your question, but if not, please email me at michael.grzelak@spindustries.com…

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H-B Instrument Easy-Read Pocket Liquid-In-Glass Thermometer, Total immersion with Enviro-Safe 20 to 120 degree F Range B60570-2100 1

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