Written out meaning - what does SOS stand for?
The origin of the distress signal lies in German shipping at the beginning of the 20th century. Contrary to what is often assumed, the three letters are not an abbreviation at all.
- Instead, "SOS" is a Morse code that was previously used in radio communication among ships. The Morse code behind the three letters (three short, three long, three short) was so concise that even untrained people could recognize it.
- If a ship got into trouble, it could send the SOS signal to ask other ships to stop radio communication. Once this was done, further information about the emergency was transmitted to all ships in the area.
- A misconception, however, is that "SOS" is the abbreviation for "save our souls". This meaning was later interpreted.
- To this day, the sequence of letters is used internationally to mark emergency telephones, lifebuoys and the like.
What happens if you have no network and use your cell phone to call emergency services is what well show in the next article.
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