Emile Baudot
(Jean Maurice) Émile Baudot, telegraph engineer and pioneer of telecommunication, of 103, Rue de Grenelle, Paris (1887)
1845 Born in Magneux, Haute-Marne, the son of farmer Pierre Emile Baudot, who later became the mayor of Magneux.
In his youth he worked on his father’s farm.
1870 Started work in the French postal and telegraph administration. In the limited free time available at the Central Post Office in Paris he learnt about science and conducted research to improve the telegraphic equipment.
He developed what became known as the Baudot code which enabled simpler, direct transmission of text without having to convert it into code in the telegraph stations before transmission. He developed a device which, using a 5-bit code, was not only able to print the telegram text directly onto a paper strip on the receiver side, but also to transmit several telegrams in a multiplex system simultaneously via a single telegraph line.
1874 Baudot was granted a patent with the title "System for fast telegraphy". Using the 5-bit code, this device was able to transmit two telegrams simultaneously via one line and print them directly as readable text on two different paper strips on the receiver side. The device thus produced was the first to transmit signals in a system known today as synchronous time-division multiplexing to achieve multiple line utilization.
1875 Patent on Telegraphy
1875 The Baudot system was adopted by the French Post and Telegraph Administration.
1877 The first connection tests of his system were successfully carried out on 12 November between Paris and Bordeaux. At the end of 1877, the Paris-Rome link (about 1700 kilometres) was put into service by a double Baudot teleprinter system.
1878 Exhibited Multiplex Printing Telegraph at the Paris Exhibition.
1879 He was awarded the French Legion of Honour Cross for his achievements.
1880 He was promoted to Controller.
He often had to finance his research out of his own pocket. In 1880, for example, he sold his large gold medal, which he was awarded at the 1878 World Exhibition in Paris.
1882 He was appointed test inspection engine
1883 Spanish patent "Un aparato telegráfico impresor perfeccionado."
1887 Foreign Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers
1894 A Baudot telegraph was used to operate the underground lines from Paris to Bordeaux with a triple teleprinter, which until then had been very unreliable. Baudot then established – again via a single line – the connection between the Paris and Milan stock exchanges and at the same time between the Central Post Office in Paris and that of Milan.
1897 The Baudot system was adopted by the General Post Office for a simplex circuit between London and Paris, and was used for general purposes from 1898.
1898 Baudot received the highest award for his work in his lifetime when he was appointed an officer of the French Legion of Honour.
1903 Émile Baudot died at the age of 57 after a long illness.
1926 The unit for the number of symbols transmitted per second was named Baud in his honour .
See Also
- [1] Science Museum exhibit