Standard wire gauge

The British Standard Wire Gauge, often referred to as the Standard Wire Gauge or simply SWG, is a unit used to denote wire gauge (size) as defined by BS 3737:1964, a standard that has since been withdrawn. It is also known as the Imperial Wire Gauge or British Standard Gauge. Although its use has significantly declined, SWG sizes are still used for measuring the thickness of guitar strings and certain types of electrical wire.

A standard wire gauge

In modern applications, wire size is more commonly measured in terms of cross-sectional area, expressed in square millimeters, particularly for electrical installation cables. The current British Standard for metallic materials, including wires and sheets, is BS 6722:1986, which exclusively uses metric measurements.

History

SWG was fixed by Order of Council August 23, 1883. It was constructed by improving the Birmingham Wire Gauge. It was made a legal standard on 1 March, 1884, by the British Board of Trade. SWG is not to be confused with American wire gauge, which has a similar but not interchangeable numbering scheme.

Standard

A table of the gauge numbers and wire diameters is shown below.^[1][2] The basis of the system is the thou (or mil in US English), or 0.001 in. Sizes are specified as wire diameters, stated in thou and tenths of a thou (mils and tenths). The wire diameter diminishes with increasing size number. No. 7/0, the largest size, is 0.50 in. (500 thou or 12.7 mm) dia., No. 1 is 0.30 in. (300 thou), and the smallest, No. 50, is 0.001 in. (1 thou or 25.4 µm).

The system as a whole approximates an exponential curve, plotting diameter against gauge-number (each size is a approximately a constant multiple of the previous size). The weight per unit length diminishes by an average of approximately 20% at each step. Because the weight per unit length is related to the cross sectional area, and therefore to the square of the diameter, the diameter diminishes by approximately 10.6%:

${\displaystyle {\mbox{Diameter Ratio}}=1-{\sqrt {1-0.2}}\approx 10.6\%}$

However, the system is piecewise linear, only approximating the exponential curve loosely. Thus, it runs in constant steps of 0.4 thou (0.4 mil) through the range No. 49 - No. 39 and of 0.8 thou (0.8 mil) through No. 39 - No. 30.

British Standard Wire Gauge (SWG) diameters

SWG	(in)	(mm)	Step
7/0	0.500	12.700	0.036"/gauge
6/0	0.464	11.786	0.032"/gauge
5/0	0.432	10.973
4/0	0.400	10.160	0.028"/gauge
3/0	0.372	9.449	0.024"/gauge
2/0	0.348	8.839
0	0.324	8.230
1	0.300	7.620
2	0.276	7.010
3	0.252	6.401	0.020"/gauge
4	0.232	5.893
5	0.212	5.385
6	0.192	4.877	0.016"/gauge
7	0.176	4.470
8	0.160	4.064
9	0.144	3.658
10	0.128	3.251	0.012"/gauge
11	0.116	2.946
12	0.104	2.642
13	0.092	2.337
14	0.080	2.032	0.008"/gauge
15	0.072	1.829
16	0.064	1.626
17	0.056	1.422
18	0.048	1.219
19	0.040	1.016	0.004"/gauge
20	0.036	0.914
21	0.032	0.813
22	0.028	0.711
23	0.024	0.610	0.002"/gauge
24	0.022	0.559
25	0.020	0.5080
26	0.018	0.4572	0.0016"/gauge
27	0.0164	0.4166
28	0.0148	0.3759	0.0012"/gauge
29	0.0136	0.3454
30	0.0124	0.3150	0.0008"/gauge
31	0.0116	0.2946
32	0.0108	0.2743
33	0.0100	0.2540
34	0.0092	0.2337
35	0.0084	0.2134
36	0.0076	0.1930
37	0.0068	0.1727
38	0.0060	0.1524
39	0.0052	0.1321	0.0004"/gauge
40	0.0048	0.1219
41	0.0044	0.1118
42	0.004	0.1016
43	0.0036	0.0914
44	0.0032	0.0813
45	0.0028	0.0711
46	0.0024	0.0610
47	0.0020	0.0508
48	0.0016	0.0406
49	0.0012	0.0305	0.0002"/gauge
50	0.0010	0.0254

See also

• IEC 60228, the metric wire-size standard used in most parts of the world.
• Circular mil, Electrical industry standard for wires larger than 4/0.
• American Wire Gauge (AWG), used primarily in the US and Canada
• Stubs Iron Wire Gauge
• Jewelry wire gauge
• Body jewelry sizes
• Electrical wiring
• Number 8 wire, a term used in the New Zealand vernacular