The measure of the diameter, or thickness, of a conductor.The thicker the wire, the less the resistance, the stronger the signal over a given distance, and the better the overall performance of the medium. Thicker wires also offer the advantage of greater break strength.Thicker wires, however, also require more metal, which makes them heavier and more difficult to bend, which ultimately increases both acquisition and deployment costs. By way of example, the first long-line copper wire telephone circuits were strung between New York and Chicago. Consisting of uninsulated hard drawn copper conductors about as thick as a pencil, the two-wire circuit weighed 870,000 pounds, filled a twenty-two car freight train and cost US$130,000 for the copper alone. The most commonly used measurements of gauge are American Wire Gauge (AWG), Imperial Standard Wire Gauge, and metric gauge. See also AWG, break strength, Imperial Standard Wire Gauge, metric gauge, and resistance.