The Stubs Iron Wire Gauge system (also known as the Birmingham Wire Gauge and not to be confused with the similar but different Stubs Steel Wire Gauge) is used to specify thickness or diameter of metal wire, strip, and tube products. The Stubs system was the first wire gauge recognized as a standard by any country when Great Britain adopted it in 1884; though nearly obsolete, it is the only wire gauge recognized in the United States through an Act of Congress.