Let’s talk about the sizing of wire.
When I first started working as
an electrician, wire sizes confused me. In
accordance with American Wire Gauge (AWG) standards, they seem to run backwards
in size. A #10 wire is bigger than a #12
wire. A #1 wire is substantially bigger
than a #10. I was of a mind that bigger
numbers should be assigned as wire size increased.
After 45 years in the trade, I
have mostly gotten over being confused.
Mostly.
Today, for those of you
similarly distressed by the backwards scheme for sizing wire, I can explain why
this is so. The sizing logic reflects
the original process for manufacturing wire.
In early wire manufacturing
processes, wires were made smaller in cross-sectional size by a process called
drawing. Drawing a wire is simply pulling
the wire through a single, or series of, ever smaller die(s). Each time the wire is drawn it gets smaller
and longer. The size simply reflected
the number of times the wire was drawn.
— Mitchell Hegman
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