The kilogram/liter was a hollow gold-plated brass sphere having a mass of approximately 1 kg and a volume of approximately 1 cubic decimeter (1 liter). It was thus an object having the properties of a liter of pure water free from air. This was the first concept for the definition of the metric standard of mass. As part of the rationalizing impulse that the metric system represented, it was originally thought that all units of the metric system could derive from one single fundamental unit: the meter. The meter would equal a ten millionth part of a quadrant of the earth's meridian. Both the kilogram/liter and the belief that the meter had a decimal relation to a quadrant of the earth's meridian were later abandoned. This particular sphere was made by Louis A. Fischer at the National Bureau of Standards around 1905 to replace one believed to have been made in 1844 by Joseph Saxton of the Coast Survey.