I only posted a few octatonic 'minus 1' collections - seven-tone scales resulting from octatonic scales losing one note. And that only because the harp has 7 pedals and translates any scale into an essentially diatonic (i.e. one note name per scale member) collection.

The octatonic is easily constructed. It is an alternation of whole and half steps. There are essentially 3 possibilities, assuming enharmonic equivalences (as most composers in the 20th century are wont to do)

C_D^Eb_F^F#_G#^A_B

C^Db_Eb^E_F#^G_A^Bb

and

C#^D_E^F_G^Ab_Bb^B

But this is not the only scale Messiaen ever used, naturally. He also used many diatonic collections and much more. You can read more about his scale vocabulary, as martle pointed out, in La technique de mon langage musical. I just tried a link to a free e-copy of this book, but it quit my browser quite violently. Still, as mart says, it's a quick read.

Not all of Messiaen's scales are 'of limited transposition' -- but that term does stem from him, just like non-retrogradeable rhythm. Both terms are potentially confusing. A 'non-retrogradeable rhythm' is one that is identical if read backwards, i.e., a rhythmic palindrome. That doesn't mean it can't be written in retrograde, just that the retrograde is indistinguishable from the original form

Similarly, there are no actual limits to the transpositional possibilities of the whole tone or the octatonic scale, just that the whole tone scale, when transposed up or down by any multiple of a whole step, results in the same pitch content as the original. And the octatonic is identical if transposed by a minor third or a tritone in either direction.

Another mode of limited transposition is the following: C Eb E G Ab B
which is identical to its own transposition by a major third in either direction.
Does this make sense?

Both Debussy and Messiaen use so-called Modal scales, though that's a large set of scales indeed. They both also use whole-tone and octatonic scales, though in Debussy they're slightly harder to find.

It would be misleading to call them Messiaen scales, though, in case that wasn't clear -- they show up in Stravinsky, Bartok, and more haphazardly in other contemporaries and even earlier composers.

To add to posts by members Fragment and Martle -

Imagine a diminished seventh chord (say C Eb F# and A) and then join the notes with passing notes. The result is the tone/semitone octatonic scale - so there are hints in both Mozart + Beethoven. Liszt developed it and then Rimsky-Korsakov. And then . . .  well here's a quote from the Felix Petyrek thread (20th century) which mentions a few other composers


So there's a considerable prehistory. Some composers since have based entire pieces on just one version of the scale, notably Lou Harrison (middle movement of Double concerto for violin, cello and Javanese gamelan and the 2nd movement of the Grand Duo for violin and piano).

Here's the Grand Duo example - oh, and there's lots of additional clustery stuff in the piano part produced by the pianist using an implement akin to a blackboard rubber.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/xxvnbj

and if you work in an academic institution, you may be able to access this which is of some interest

http://www.jstor.org/pss/960176

Try here (47,907,626 bytes). It is large because of all the musical examples.