View single post by Mark Rosenbaum
 Posted: 05-16-2006 02:16 am
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Mark Rosenbaum



Joined: 03-12-2005
Location: Kingman, Arizona USA
Posts: 532
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 They're using the British stranded wire standard.  It's a fairly elegant system that replaced the horde of antiquated wire gauge schemes that crept into use during the past few centuries.  The numbering system involves (a) the number of strands in a wire, and (b) the diameter in millimeters of each strand.

In this system, a 14-0.10 wire would have 14 strands each 0.10mm in diameter, and a 44-0.12 wire would have 44 strands each 0.12mm diameter.   Often whoever writes down the strand size is far too important and busy a fellow to bother with decimal points, so you instead see 14-010 or 44-012, or even 14-10 or 44-12.  (With the collapse of the UK auto industry, I suspect that many of these folks have gone to work for the Inland Revenue.    8={  )

See http://www.britishwiring.com/CAT02_07.PDF for more information on the current carrying capacity and equivalence to US wire gauges.