The grave (, French: [ɡʁav]), abbreviated gv, is the unit of mass used in the first metric system which was implemented in France in 1793. In 1795, the grave was renamed as the kilogram. Origin The modern kilogram has its origins in the Age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution. In 1790 an influential proposal by Talleyrand called for a new system of units, including a unit of length derived from an invariable length in nature, and a unit of mass (then called weight) equal to the mass of a unit volume of water. In 1791, the Commission of Weights and Measures, appointed by the French Academy of Sciences, chose one ten-millionth of the half meridian as the unit of length, and named it metre. Initially a provisional value was used, based on the meridian measurement made in 1740 by Lacaille.In 1793 the commission defined the unit of mass as a cubic decimetre of distilled water at 0 °C, and gave it the name grave. Two supplemental unit names, gravet (0.001 grave...