Page:Jack Heaton, Wireless Operator (Collins, 1919).djvu/272

 and as the top of the table was made of a sheet of burnished copper and the three footed base was of iron with the connecting leg between them of wood it seemed reasonable to suppose that these formed the aerial and ground.

“Although I listened hard I couldn’t hear the faintest sound of a spark-gap working but it is an easy matter to put the transmitter in a sound-proof booth.’’

“And thus doth a little science make big skeptics of us all. Now tell our young readers, Jack, how S O S came to take the place of C Q D, as the ambulance call of the sea.”’

“It came about in this way. In 18961906 [sic] the  was held in Berlin. Germany’s wireless men, from her greatest scientists down to her lowly operators hated anything that had to do with or was used by Marconi, so instead of C Q D, they suggested that the letters S O S be used. Unlike C Q D, the letters S O S have no especial meaning in themselves but they are easy to send and to read and make, as a matter of fact, a good distress call.

“While S O S, was probably sent out many times by various operators from that time on