We first provide a brief historical sketch leading up to the Hamming codes. These codes became completely operational in 1950 when Hamming published his ground-breaking research on single-bit error correction for an erroneous bit during transmission over a noisy channel (Hamming [1950]). Before this development, Semaphore flag signaling and telegraphy were two commonly used systems of sending messages; however, they were always repeated to ensure error-free delivery. Details of the Semaphore system can be found at the International Scouts Association website: http://inter.scoutnet.org/semaphore/, and development in telegraphy is discussed below.
There were some simple error-detecting codes ...
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