Mercury thermometers - Mercury sample
These vintage fever thermometers were made with mercury. The boxes say they were manufactured by Becton, Dickinson & Co. in Rutherford, New Jersey.
The boxes say one's for oral and the other's for other use. The instructions say to reset the thermometers by swinging them hard, which is a bad idea because they're fragile glass tubes full of horrible brain damage poison.
I can't tell for sure which instruction sheet goes with which, as they have the same text (and the thermometers came to me in the wrong boxes); however, they list the serial numbers as 33333 (inspected Aug 31 '50) and 8516 (inspected Dec 22 '52).
Here's photos of the less-damaged instruction sheet:
This sample (specifically the non-flat one with the lower box) is planned to represent mercury in my WIP periodic table poster:
Source: Becton, Dicksinson & Company (original manufacturer), eBay seller army-65
Date of Acquisition: 1 June 2026
Date of Creation: ca. August 1950 & ca. December 1952
Price: $24.94 (eBay seller's price) / $20 (my offer)