Baudot, Émile

Baudot, (Jean Maurice) Émile

(born 1845, Magneux, France—died March 28, 1903, Sceaux) French engineer. In 1874 he patented a telegraph code that by the mid 20th century had supplanted Morse code as the standard telegraphic alphabet. In Baudot's code, each letter is represented by a five-unit combination of current-on or current-off signals of equal duration, providing 32 permutations (sufficient for the Roman alphabet, punctuation, and control of the machine's mechanical functions). Baudot also invented (1894) a distributor system for multiplex (simultaneous) transmission of several messages on the same telegraphic circuit or channel. The baud, a unit of data transmission speed, is named for him.