Wire Gauges

(Corrections & comment welcome)

Wire Gauge measurements remain widely used in the Imperial inch & foot measurement world which retains fractions.

Metric measurements are, by comparison, a relief in most circumstances. It is simpler to comprehend that 11.95mm is a smaller value than 12.15 but not quite as simple to know whether 29/64ths of an inch is more or less than 17/32nds of an inch.

The UNC (Unified Coarse) specification for machine threads for example reverts to gauges below 1/4 inch.  It is not immediately clear to Australian readers that a 10-24 machine screw (10 gauge with 24 threads to the inch) is, in less obscure terms, a 3/16th of an inch machine screw.

You will find references to two common gauge systems which differ - American Wire Gauge (AWG) and British Standard Wire Gauge (SWG).