Baudot code

The Baudot code, invented by Émile Baudot,^[1] is a character set predating EBCDIC and ASCII. It was the predecessor to the International Telegraph Alphabet No 2 (ITA2), the teleprinter code in use until the advent of ASCII. Each character in the alphabet is represented by a series of bits, sent over a communication channel such as a telegraph wire or a radio signal. The symbol rate measurement is known as baud, and is derived from the same name.

History

Baudot code

Technically, five bit codes in the 16th century with Francis Bacon with the cipher now called Bacon's cipher. However, this cipher is not a machine cipher and as such is not readily suitable for telecommunications.[1]

Baudot invented his original code during 1870 and patented it during 1874. It was a 5-bit code, with equal on and off intervals, which allowed telegraph transmission of the Roman alphabet and punctuation and control signals. It was based on an earlier code developed by Carl Friedrich Gauss and Wilhelm Weber in 1834.^[2][3][4]

Baudot's original code was adapted to be sent from a manual keyboard, and no teleprinter equipment was ever constructed that used it in its original form.^[5] The code was entered on a keyboard which had just five piano type keys, operated with two fingers of the left hand and three fingers of the right hand. Once the keys had been pressed they were locked down until mechanical contacts in a distributor unit passed over the sector connected to that particular keyboard, when the keyboard was unlocked ready for the next character to be entered, with an audible click (known as the "cadence signal") to warn the operator. Operators had to maintain a steady rhythm, and the usual speed of operation was 30 words per minute.^[6]

V IV I II III V IV I II III A 1 ● ● ● P  % ● ● ● ● B 8 ● ● ● Q / ● ● ● C 9 ● ● ● ● R - ● ● D 0 ● ● ● ● S  ; ● E 2 ● ● T  ! ● ● E' & ● ● U 4 ● ● ● F f ● ● ● V ' ● ● ● ● G 7 ● ● W  ? ● ● ● H h ● ● ● X , ● I o ● ● Y 3 ● ● J 6 ● ● Z  : ● ● ● ● K ( ● ● t . ● ● ● L = ● ● ● ● * * Erasure ● ● M ) ● ● Figure Blank ● ● N N° ● ● ● Letter Blank O 5 ● ● ●

Let. Fig. V IV I II III Let. Fig. V IV I II III A 1 ● - . ● ● E 2 ● X 9/ ● ● Y 3 ● S 7/ ● ● / 1/ ● ● Z  : ● ● ● I 3/ ● ● W  ? ● ● ● U 4 ● ● T ² ● ● ● O 5 ● ● ● V ¹ ● ● ● ● Let. Bl. ● J 6 ● ● K ( ● ● ● G 7 ● ● M ) ● ● ● B 8 ● ● R - ● ● ● H ¹ ● ● ● L = ● ● ● ● F 5/ ● ● ● N £ ● ● ● ● C 9 ● ● ● Q / ● ● ● ● D 0 ● ● ● ● P + ● ● ● ● ● Fig. Bl. ● * * ● ●

The table above "shows the allocation of the Baudot code which was employed in the British Post Office for continental and inland services. It will be observed that a number of characters in the continental code are replaced by fractionals in the inland code. Code elements 1, 2 and 3 are transmitted by keys 1, 2 and 3, and these are operated by the first three fingers of the right hand. Code elements 4 and 5 are transmitted by keys 4 and 5, and these are operated by the first two fingers of the left hand."^[5][7][8]

Baudot's code became known as International Telegraph Alphabet No. 1, and is no longer used.

Murray code

Paper tape with holes representing the "Baudot Code"

During 1901 Baudot's code was modified by Donald Murray (1865–1945), prompted by his development of a typewriter-like keyboard. The Murray system employed an intermediate step, a keyboard perforator, which allowed an operator to punch a paper tape, and a tape transmitter for sending the message from the punched tape. At the receiving end of the line, a printing mechanism would print on a paper tape, and/or a reperforator could be used to make a perforated copy of the message.^[9] As there was no longer a direct correlation between the operator's hand movement and the bits transmitted, there was no concern about arranging the code to minimize operator fatigue, and instead Murray designed the code to minimize wear on the machinery, assigning the code combinations with the fewest punched holes to the most frequently used characters.

The Murray code also introduced what became known as "format effectors" or "control characters" - the CR (Carriage Return) and LF (Line Feed) codes. A few of Baudot's codes moved to the positions where they have stayed ever since: the NULL or BLANK and the DEL code. NULL/BLANK was used as an idle code for when no messages were being sent.

Early British Creed machines used the Murray system.

Western Union

Keyboard of a teleprinter using the Baudot code, with FIGS and LTRS shift keys.

Murray's code was adopted by Western Union which used it until the 1950s, with a few changes that consisted of omitting some characters and adding more control codes. An explicit SPC (space) character was introduced, in place of the BLANK/NULL, and a new BEL code rang a bell or otherwise produced an audible signal at the receiver. Additionally, the WRU or "Who aRe yoU?" code was introduced, which caused a receiving machine to send an identification stream back to the sender.

ITA2

Around 1930, the CCITT introduced the International Telegraphy Alphabet No. 2 (ITA2) code as an international standard, which was based on the Western Union code with some minor changes. The US standardized on a version of ITA2 called the American Teletypewriter code (USTTY) which was the basis for 5-bit teletypewriter codes until the debut of 7-bit ASCII in 1963.^[10]

International telegraphy alphabet No. 2 (Baudot-Murray code)^[11]

Pattern of impulses 1 = mark 0 = space msb on left	Pattern of impulses 1 = mark 0 = space msb on right	Letter shift	Figure shift
00000	00000	null	null
00100	00100	space	space
10111	11101	Q	1
10011	11001	W	2
00001	10000	E	3
01010	01010	R	4
10000	00001	T	5
10101	10101	Y	6
00111	11100	U	7
00110	01100	I	8
11000	00011	O	9
10110	01101	P	0
00011	11000	A	-
00101	10100	S	BELL
01001	10010	D	$
01101	10110	F	!
11010	01011	G	&
10100	00101	H	#
01011	11010	J	'
01111	11110	K	(
10010	01001	L	)
10001	10001	Z	"
11101	10111	X	/
01110	01110	C	:
11110	01111	V	;
11001	10011	B	?
01100	00110	N	,
11100	00111	M	.
01000	00010	Carriage return	Carriage return
00010	01000	Line feed	Line feed
11011	11011	Shift to figures
11111	11111		Shift to letters

ITA2 is still used in TDDs and some amateur radio applications, such as radioteletype ("RTTY"). ITA2 is also used in Enhanced Broadcast Solution (a recent financial protocol specified by Deutsche Börse) to reduce the character encoding footprint ^[12]

Nomenclature

Nearly all 20th century teleprinter equipment used Western Union's code, ITA2, or variants thereof. Radio amateurs casually call ITA2 and variants "Baudot" incorrectly,^[13] and even the American Radio Relay League's Amateur Radio Handbook does so, though in more recent editions the tables of codes correctly identifies it as ITA2.

Details

NOTE: This table presumes the space called "1" by Baudot and Murray is rightmost, and least significant. The actual order of transmission varied by manufacturer.^{[clarification needed]}

Table of USTTY codes (expressed as hexadecimal numbers)

In ITA2, characters are expressed using five bits. ITA2 uses two code sub-sets, the "letter shift" (LTRS), and the "figure shift" (FIGS). The FIGS character (11011) signals that the following code is to be interpreted as being in the FIGS set, until this is reset by the LTRS (11111) character. "ENQuiry" will trigger the other machine's answerback. It means "Who are you?"

CR is carriage return, LF is line feed, BEL is the bell character which rang a small bell (often used to alert operators to an incoming message), SP is space, and NUL is the null character (blank tape).

Note: the binary conversions of the codepoints are often shown in reverse order, depending on (presumably) from which side one views the paper tape. Note further that the "control" characters were chosen so that they were either symmetric or in useful pairs so that inserting a tape "upside down" did not result in problems for the equipment and the resulting printout could be deciphered. Thus FIGS (11011), LTRS (11111) and space (00100) are invariant, while CR (00010) and LF (01000), generally used as a pair, result in the same output when the tape is reversed. LTRS could also be used to overpunch characters to be deleted on a paper tape (much like DEL in 7-bit ASCII).

The sequence RYRYRY... is often used in test messages, and at the start of every transmission. Since R is 01010 and Y is 10101, the sequence exercises much of a teleprinter's mechanical components at maximum stress. Also, at one time, fine-tuning of the receiver was done using two coloured lights (one for each tone). 'RYRYRY...' produced 0101010101..., which made the lights glow with equal brightness when the tuning was correct. This tuning sequence is only useful when ITA2 is used with two-tone FSK modulation, such as is commonly seen in Radioteletype (RTTY) usage.

US implementations of Baudot code may differ in the addition of a few characters, such as #, & on the FIGS layer. The above table represents the US TTY code.

The Russian version of Baudot code (MTK-2) used three shift modes; the Cyrillic letter mode was activated by the character (00000). Because of the larger number of characters in the Cyrillic alphabet, the characters !, &, £, and BEL were omitted and replaced by Cyrillics.

See also

• Serial communication
• Asynchronous communication
• Morse code
• RY (test signal)
• Punched tape

Notes

1. ^ Anthony Ralston and Edwin D. Reilly (ed.), Encyclopedia of Computer Science Third Edition, IEEE Press/Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York 1993, ISBN 0-442-27679-6 Baudot Code
2. ^ H. A. Emmons (May 1, 1916). "Printer Systems". Wire & Radio Communications 34: 209. 
3. ^ William V. Vansize (Jan 25, 1901). "A New Page-Printing Telegraph". Transactions (American Institute of Electrical Engineers) 18: 22. http://books.google.com/?id=WlNLAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA22&dq=gauss+weber+baudot. 
4. ^ "Gauss-Weber-Telegraph" (in German). Metrology Mile. Measurement Valley. http://www.measurement-valley.de/Gauss-Weber-Telegraf. Retrieved 2009-05-03. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Jennings, Tom (29 October 2004). "An annotated history of some character codes or ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Infiltration: Baudot's code". http://wps.com/projects/codes/index.html#BAUDOT. Retrieved August 10, 2011. 
6. ^ Beauchamp, K.G. (2001). History of Telegraphy: Its Technology and Application. IET. pp. 394–395. ISBN 0852967926. 
7. ^ Alan G. Hobbs, "5 Unit Codes", "Baudot Multiplex System"
8. ^ Gleick, James (2011). The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood. London: Fourth Estate. pp. 203. ISBN 978-0-00-742311-8. http://around.com/the-information. 
9. ^ Foster, Maximilian (August 1901). "A Successful Printing Telegraph". The World's Work: A History of Our Time II: 1195–1199. http://books.google.com/books?id=IF6tNZnhO7wC&pg=PA1195. Retrieved 2009-07-09. 
10. ^ Smith, Gil (2001). "Teletype Communication Codes". Baudot.net. http://www.baudot.net/docs/smith--teletype-codes.pdf. Retrieved 2008-07-11. 
11. ^ dataIP Limited. "The "Baudot" Code". http://www.dataip.co.uk/Reference/BaudotTable.php. Retrieved 9 October 2010 
12. ^ "Enhanced Broadcast Solution - Interface Specification Final Version". Deutsche Börse. 17 May 2010. https://www9.deutsche-boerse.com/INTERNET/XETRA/x4_member.nsf/0/4502210270B32DA8C1257600005247F5/$FILE/MUI11010_EnBS_FinalVersion.pdf/MUI11010_EnBS_FinalVersion.pdf?OpenElement. Retrieved August 10, 2011. 
13. ^ Gillam, Richard (2002). Unicode Demystified:. Addison-Wesley. pp. 30. ISBN 0201700522.  Enhanced Broadcast Solution - Interface Specification Final Version

References

• Five-unit codes
• An examination of Baudot code in respect to other character codes by Tom Jennings
• MTK-2 code table
• Baudot, Murray, ITA2, ITA5, etc.
• Jean-Maurice-Émile Baudot; (includes photos of 1870s-1880s gear, tech details & references)
• Online Text-ITA2-Converter

This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL.