Remember the good old Mercury thermometers? The one’s used until 90’s by general practitioners to check your temperature whenever you had flu? It turns out they weren’t good at all!! The doctor used to poke it under your tongue and wait, staring down at you and you felt an awkward pain of bearing the (quite heavy instrument) under the little weight of your tongue and lips. Right, those are not used any more, due to the fatal risk it hides beneath its shimmering content (mercury).

Once the dangers of mercury were found out, the old school thermometers had to retire. The risks of using a mercury thermometer to check one’s body temperature is high, even a tiny crack in the glass can be fatal to the patient. This is when, doctors and people worldwide turned to digital and electronic thermometers. The procedure of checking temperature using mercury thermometers was also quite complicated and it was not so easy to understand the readings, only a professional, or an experienced person could read it swiftly at a glance. The thermometer had to be first warmed; then placed in the mouth of the patient, and wait for a couple of minutes to check the temperature. The temperature was measured in Celsius, once the mercury rose to the temperature number indicated.

The new digital and electronic thermometers do not have any mercury or other such harmful substances in it, thus; making them safe to use. These thermometers show accurate readings instantaneously and are easy to use. These thermometers come in various types; there are thermometers made for babies, and are known as baby pacifier thermometers; which makes ‘measuring temperature’ an easy task for both, the parent and the child. The baby simply sucks on the pacifier and the parent gets the temperature reading on it.

Life is definitely good with technology!!