Yep that's the way I see it. When the English set up standards for sizes, they set up a standard to which manufactured goods could be referenced to. They used the term gauges to show that a product size could be defined as being able to be referenced against a standard measurement or gauge. Thus a buyer of a 12ga would be assured that he was getting a gun bored to a specific standard as defined by a gauge. In the same token there is no real definition as to what the bore of a 12 bore might be since it does not reference its self to a standard dimension.
Here is what it boils down to in my mind and the basis of my rant:
When the English set up standards or Gauges, they did the world a great service for they set up standards upon we could rely and build on. When we say bore as a tip of the hat to British quality and ingenuity we miss the real genius of what the British contributed at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, that of standardization. This goes along with the greatest gift we got from the English, that of self control and honesty for no people can be free from the rule of others if they can't rule themselves and their behavior.
