4 Comments for How did barcodes come to be? Who came up with the idea?
1.
soniakidman | February 27th, 2007 at 6:38 am
Modern bar code began in 1948. Bernard Silver, a graduate student at Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia, overheard the president of a local food chain asking one of the deans to undertake research to develop a system to automatically read product information during checkout. Silver told his friend Norman Joseph Woodland about the food chain president’s request. Woodland was a twenty seven year old graduate student and teacher at Drexel. The problem fascinated Woodland and he began to work on the problem.
Woodland’s first idea used patterns of ink that would glow under ultraviolet light. Woodland and Silver built a device which worked, but the system had problems with ink instability and it was expensive to print the patterns. Woodland was still convinced they had a workable idea. Woodland took some stock market earnings, quit his teaching job at Drexel, and moved to his grandfather’s Florida apartment to have more time to work on the problem.
On October 20, 1949, Woodland and Silver filed a patent application titled “Classifying Apparatus and Method.” The inventors described their invention as relating “to the art of article classification…through the medium of identifying patterns”.
Most bar code histories state that the Woodland and Silver bar code was a “bull’s eye” symbol, a symbol made up of a series of concentric circles. While Woodland and Silver did describe such a symbol, the basic symbology was described as a straight line pattern quite similar to present day 1D bar code.
The symbology was made up of a pattern of four white lines on a dark background. The first line was a datum line and the positions of the remaining three lines were fixed with respect to the first line. The information was coded by the presence or absence of one or more of the lines. This allowed 7 different classifications of articles. However, the inventors noted that if more lines were added, more classifications could be coded. With 10 lines, 1023 classifications could be coded.
2.
WayMoreParsecs | February 27th, 2007 at 7:03 am
The inventor used to work for Holmes Electric in New York. The Railroads used his idea in order to identify freight cars as they passed nearby detectors. Suggest you contact US patent office for sources of this type of information.
3.
Barf Vader ..Vinster | February 27th, 2007 at 7:48 am
somebody that wanted a beer after hours and they set up a special code to serve him after hours…it helped he owned the bar…I think it was his Idea
jk…Jordin Johanson, Bernard Silver and Norman Joseph Woodland. in 1948
4.
terminator | February 27th, 2007 at 8:15 am
Wallace Flint proposed an automated checkout system in 1932 using punch cards.[1] Norman Joseph Woodland patented a bull’s-eye style code in 1952 and the first commercial use of barcodes was in 1966. [2]
In 1970 Logicon Inc. created the Universal Grocery Products Identification Code (UGPIC). In 1970 it was used by Monarch Marking in the United States and Plessey Telecommunications in the United Kingdom. [3]
A group of grocery industry trade associations formed the Uniform Grocery Product Code Council which with consulting firm McKinsey & Company defined the predecessor to the Uniform Product Code. In 1973 George J. Laurer developed the Universal Product Code.[4] See Development of the IBM UPC proposal below.[5]
The first item to be placed under a UPC scanner in a retail store was a 10-pack of Wrigley’s Chewing Gum at a Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, on June 26, 1974.[1]
Leave a Comment for How did barcodes come to be? Who came up with the idea?
4 Comments for How did barcodes come to be? Who came up with the idea?
1. soniakidman | February 27th, 2007 at 6:38 am
Modern bar code began in 1948. Bernard Silver, a graduate student at Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia, overheard the president of a local food chain asking one of the deans to undertake research to develop a system to automatically read product information during checkout. Silver told his friend Norman Joseph Woodland about the food chain president’s request. Woodland was a twenty seven year old graduate student and teacher at Drexel. The problem fascinated Woodland and he began to work on the problem.
Woodland’s first idea used patterns of ink that would glow under ultraviolet light. Woodland and Silver built a device which worked, but the system had problems with ink instability and it was expensive to print the patterns. Woodland was still convinced they had a workable idea. Woodland took some stock market earnings, quit his teaching job at Drexel, and moved to his grandfather’s Florida apartment to have more time to work on the problem.
On October 20, 1949, Woodland and Silver filed a patent application titled “Classifying Apparatus and Method.” The inventors described their invention as relating “to the art of article classification…through the medium of identifying patterns”.
Most bar code histories state that the Woodland and Silver bar code was a “bull’s eye” symbol, a symbol made up of a series of concentric circles. While Woodland and Silver did describe such a symbol, the basic symbology was described as a straight line pattern quite similar to present day 1D bar code.
The symbology was made up of a pattern of four white lines on a dark background. The first line was a datum line and the positions of the remaining three lines were fixed with respect to the first line. The information was coded by the presence or absence of one or more of the lines. This allowed 7 different classifications of articles. However, the inventors noted that if more lines were added, more classifications could be coded. With 10 lines, 1023 classifications could be coded.
2. WayMoreParsecs | February 27th, 2007 at 7:03 am
The inventor used to work for Holmes Electric in New York. The Railroads used his idea in order to identify freight cars as they passed nearby detectors. Suggest you contact US patent office for sources of this type of information.
3. Barf Vader ..Vinster | February 27th, 2007 at 7:48 am
somebody that wanted a beer after hours and they set up a special code to serve him after hours…it helped he owned the bar…I think it was his Idea
jk…Jordin Johanson, Bernard Silver and Norman Joseph Woodland. in 1948
4. terminator | February 27th, 2007 at 8:15 am
Wallace Flint proposed an automated checkout system in 1932 using punch cards.[1] Norman Joseph Woodland patented a bull’s-eye style code in 1952 and the first commercial use of barcodes was in 1966. [2]
In 1970 Logicon Inc. created the Universal Grocery Products Identification Code (UGPIC). In 1970 it was used by Monarch Marking in the United States and Plessey Telecommunications in the United Kingdom. [3]
A group of grocery industry trade associations formed the Uniform Grocery Product Code Council which with consulting firm McKinsey & Company defined the predecessor to the Uniform Product Code. In 1973 George J. Laurer developed the Universal Product Code.[4] See Development of the IBM UPC proposal below.[5]
The first item to be placed under a UPC scanner in a retail store was a 10-pack of Wrigley’s Chewing Gum at a Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, on June 26, 1974.[1]
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