what does guage in guage steel mean

Wrong !!! Sheet gage [gauge ] is actually based originally on weight not thickness. Sheets also are thicker in the center than the edges. There used to be many gage systems, each company having it's own gage ! Things are better now but there still are more than one gage system. It's always a good idea to make sure of the actual thickness ,not just depend on gage # .
 
mete said:
Wrong !!! Sheet gage [gauge ] is actually based originally on weight not thickness.
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That may well be the case, but these days, when people refer to sheet or wire guage, they tend to mean thickness.
 
thickness and weight are related. Most of this sort of thing started by either the number of whatever in a given unit of measure or the weight of a given size.
 
"The form 'guage' is a mere blunder", the OED tells us under 'gauge', 'gage' being a recent American variant (it does lists 'guage' itself as an obsolete and rare variant).
And the primary sense of ‘gauge‘ or 'gage' is simply "a fixed or standard measure or scale of measurement to which a thing must conform, esp... contents... diameter... or the THICKNESS OF SHEET IRON"
Even though varying thickness doesn't make it unlikely that an average thickness is being measured, the correlation between thickness and weight in a given material makes it quite possible to see it as a measure of weight, too.
Generally, I wouldn't bet on weight being the "original" parameter prior to thickness, but I couldn't contradict someone who knows of it being used as a measure of weight somewhere.
I would oppose the form "guage" as a blunder, though :-)
best, t.
 
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