The first calibrated thermometers were made in the 17th century in Italy. Galileo Galilei invented the first thermometer around 1593 based on the expansion and contraction of a liquid (usually water or alcohol) in a glass tube with an attached bulb, but this thermometer had no scale .In 1612, the Italian scientist Santorio Santorio improved upon Galileo's design by introducing the first calibrated thermometer, making measurements more accurate an consistent.