Key Takeaways
Even youngster at shimmer know that when you ’re in a living - threatening parking brake — possibly you demand to be rescued from an island filled withhuman - eating crabsthat ’s also surrounded by lava — the way you lease the world know you ’re in trouble is to wave your arms and sign distress by repeatedly shout three childlike letter : SOS .
you’re able to write them on the beach , mail them viaMorse codeor , if you have a pen , write them on your hand and dart them at passersby . We all know thatsending out an SOSsignal is the best chance you ’ve get at being rescued .
So , what does SOS mean ? An SOS substance must mean something important , right ?
Nope . The letter SOS stand up for nothing . Not " Save Our Ship , " not " Save Our Souls " — it was n’t even originally designed to place upright for letter of the English alphabet . Yet , it ’s the standard distraint sign most mass bonk .
The Introduction of Morse Code
Although the letter of the alphabet sequence " SOS " stands for nothing , it came from somewhere as a replenishment for a visual distraint signal . That somewhere is Morse code , which was train along with the wireless telegraphy machine to send messages using electrical signals . Samuel Morse himself sent the first telegraph , which say : " What hath God wrought ? " He sent the content in Morse codification over an observational line from Washington , D.C. , to Baltimore , Maryland .
In Morse code , dot and flair are assembled in different form to represent the different letters of the alphabet . In this means , messages could be send wirelessly all over the universe using radio equipment — even from ship .
This prove useful , because prior to the beginning of the 20th C , ships were pretty much out of fate when they needed to get a message to shore . Morse code did not exist yet .
But as ships began carrying telegraph equipment , distraint signals were adopted early on and were great when the ship carry the sign and the operator on the receiving end spoke the same distress language . But at first , unlike countries used different codes for parking brake situation , which was obviously not idealistic .
SOS as a Universal Distress Signal
However , in 1905 the German government published the " German Regulations for the Control of Spark Telegraphy . " It mandate that German wireless operators apply " … — … " ( three dots , three dashes and three dots ) to point an hand brake . This did n’t really have anything to do with letters of the ABCs , but it was warm and easy to type , and hard to mistake for anything else .
It also happened to spell " SOS " in Morse computer code . Everyone jibe it was right smart adept than " SSSDDD , " which is what the Italians were pushing for at theInternational Radiotelegraph Conventionin November of 1906 . The term SOS was voted in as the prescribed international distress sign and run into effect July 1 , 1908 .
The SOS Distress Signal Takes Root
It took a while for the SOS distress call to take in on .
For instance , the BritishMarconi International Marine Communication Companythat outfitted ship with telegraph equipment preferred the suffering computer code " CQD , " or " -.- . –.- - .. " in Morse computer code , and continued using it in Morse code sequence long after the SOS call was constitute as the external monetary standard . In fact , it was the first distress codification sent by the telegraphy operators on theTitanicafter the ship come to the iceberg , although they finally used the SOS signal as well .
Thefirst recordedAmerican use of SOS to call for help was sent Aug. 11 , 1909 , off the seashore of Cape Hatteras , North Carolina , when Theodore Haubner called for help from the steamer SS Arapahoe .
As the Morse code SOS call was ab initio intended for maritime use , it was put back with the verbal signal " Mayday " at theInternational Radiotelegraphic Conventionin 1927 .
Mayday is derived from the French " m’aider " which means " serve me . " But SOS could n’t be kick out so easy : Mayday is still in employment today as the distress signal for vocalization communication , while the SOS is still used as the distress signaling in telecommunication .
