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Telephone open wire line specs

Still cleaning out junk from move; ran into a copy of an old article which prompts this query. It first says (page 188) "in exchange area cables, wire conductors as fine as 22, 24, or 26-gage are widely used, whereas the minimum gage in long toll cables is 19." Later, they say about open wire facilities "the conductors used were almost entirely 165, 128 or 104-gage.." which sounds like finer than human hair assuming one uses the term "gage" to mean what electronic techs AND the previous quote means WRT to size. Later on page 190 and 191 one sees "gage of wire (mils)" - making the wire sizes 165, 128 or 104-gage much more reasonable. So it seems that the telephone industry is messed up in using at least two size definitions for the term "gage".

Comments?

Reply to
Robert Baer
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Remember that telephony predates almost everything, and adopted conventions we consider odd today. (Prime example: Positive ground. I remember looking at too many schematics labeled -19V and -24V.) The open wire lines predated the use of cables, or even wire gauge standardization. The 165 mil wire was No. 8 Birmingham Wire Gauge, while the 128 and 104 mil wire were No. 10 British Standard Wire Gauge, and No. 12 British Standard Wire Gauge, respectively. While it appears the the Bell System tried to refer to the open wire line sizes in mil, over the years, the technicians no doubt fell into the habit of referring to every wire sizing denomination as "gauge."

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Reply to
spamtrap1888

No wonder why it was confusing as all heck.

Reply to
Robert Baer

That was interesting, and a good reference for wire sizes.

The formula for wire gauge from diameter in inches (as an Excel formula) = is:

AWG =3D -3*LOG(10*DIA^2; 2)

Wire sizes greater than 0 are denoted as -1 for 00, -2 for 000, -3 for =

0000

Paul=20

Reply to
P E Schoen

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