The Romance of Words. SOS
The first signal ever transmitted across the Atlantic by wireless telegraphy was the letter S. Senator Marconi, the inventor, did not send this because it was the initial of anything in particular. , He chose it because it is one of the simplest letters in the Morse alphabet, consisting of three dots. For exactly the same reason, the combination SOS has come to be used as a distress signal. Three dots, three dashes and three dots are distinctive, cannot be confused with anything else, and are easy to transmit in an emergency. The popular idea that the letters stand for “Save Our Ship.” or “Save Our Souls,” is quite erroneous. There should not. in fact, be any full-stop after each letter.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19350115.2.53
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Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 94, 15 January 1935, Page 7
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125The Romance of Words. SOS Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 94, 15 January 1935, Page 7
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