Telegraphy the sense of a system that can transmit arbitrary messages over arbitrary distances. Lines of signalling relay stations can send messages to any required distance, but all these systems are limited to one extent or another in the range of messages that they can send. A system like flag semaphore, with an alphabetic code, can certainly send any given message, but the system is designed for short-range communication between two persons. An engine order telegraph, used to send instructions from the bridge of a ship to the engine room, fails to meet both criteria; it has a limited distance and
Two-out-of-five code Two-out-of-five code In telecommunication, a two-out-of-five code is an m of n code that provides exactly ten possible combinations, and thus is popular for representing decimal digits using five bits. There are ways to assign weights to each bit such that the set bits sum to the desired value, with an exception for zero. According to Federal Standard 1037C: The weights give a unique encoding for most digits, but allow two encodings for 3: 0+3 or 10010 and 1+2 or 01100. The former is used to encode the digit 3, and the latter is used to represent the otherwise unrepresentable