Data communication concepts and alternatives

Abstract

The first binary data communication system was demonstrated by Cooke and Wheatstone in 1839. This used six parallel wires to control the position of five needles which pointed to the letters of the alphabet. The first machine to use serial binary data communication was the teleprinter, developed by Emil Baudot in 1874. The Baudot Code uses five bits to represent the letters of the alphabet and a figures shift character, after which code combinations are interpreted as numbers.