THE "S.O.S." SIGNAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15504, 10 January 1914, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE "5.0.5." SIGNAL.

Althocgh the "5.0.5." signal, which Brought no fewer than ten vessels *-t> the aid of the burning Volturno in mid-At-lantic, has become identified in &* popular mind with the phrase, "Save our souls." its adoption as the wireless emergency call- for ships in distress was in no way dictated' by any such significance. '" 5.0.5." was chosen for the purpose because of the pre-eminent distinctiveness or the signals representing those letter* which rendered them less likely to be contused with any other message, and also probably because the " S '* signal has a special capacity for making itself tert and understood over very lone distances 6

Tnis was ascortahud by Marconi when he was experimenting with wireless telegraphy across the width of the Atlantic in 1901. Prior to taking up his position at the experimental receiving station} erected at St. John's, Newfoundland, he arranged that a series of "S" signals on the Morse- code, consisting of three cots, should "be sent from Poldhu, in Cornwall, at stated hours, according to a preconcerted programme, so as to leave no doubt that they were electric wave signal* and not accidental atmospheric electrical disturbances. These signals were received and recorded beyond all question at St. John's, the result creating at the time :a great sensation, since it proved absolutely tiahiblc, and not inhibited either by distance or by the- earth's curvature, even) .over an arc 3000 miles in extent*