The 7-track magnetic tape format was developed to store data in such codes, along with an additional parity bit.
An early six-bit binary code was used for Braille, the reading system for the blind that was developed in the 1820s.
A special 6-level extension of the 5-level International Telegraph Alphabet was used to remotely control Linotype machines beginning around 1930.
By 1950 it was widely used by wire services to send preformatted news stories to participating newspapers.
The first operated much like a keyboard's shift key and selected between a lower-case and digits repertoire, and an upper-case and symbols one.
[citation needed] A six-bit code, with added odd parity bit, is used on Track 1 of magnetic stripe cards, as specified in ISO/IEC 7811-2.
For example, email historically supported only 7-bit ASCII codes and would strip the 8th bit, thus corrupting binary data sent directly through any troublesome mail server.
A number of schemes exist to pack 8-bit data into text-only representations which can pass through text mail systems, to be decoded at the destination.
The following table shows the arrangement of characters, with the hex value, corresponding ASCII character, Braille 6-bit codes (dot combinations), Braille Unicode glyph, and general meaning (the actual meaning may change depending on context).