Barcode

Lore & Background

The barcode was invented by Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver and patented in the US in 1952. The invention was based on Morse code extended to thin and thick bars. Woodland's inspiration came from Morse code; he formed his first barcode from sand on the beach, extending dots and dashes downwards into narrow and wide lines. To read them, he adapted technology from optical soundtracks in movies, using a 500-watt incandescent light bulb and a photomultiplier tube. Woodland and Silver filed a patent application on 20 October 1949 for 'Classifying Apparatus and Method', describing both linear and bull's eye patterns; the patent was issued on 7 October 1952. Woodland later moved to IBM and tried to interest the company, but a commissioned report concluded that processing the information would require equipment some time off in the future. IBM offered to buy the patent but the offer was not accepted; Philco purchased it in 1962 and later sold it to RCA.

Reader's Guide

Barcodes transformed retail and logistics by enabling rapid, automated identification. Earlier, British Railways had perfected a barcode-reading system by December 1962 capable of reading rolling stock at 100 mph with no mistakes. The Association of American Railroads sponsored an early industrial use in the late 1960s (KarTrak ACI), but the system was abandoned after about ten years due to unreliability after long-term use. QR codes, a specific 2D barcode, rose in popularity in the second decade of the 2000s due to smartphone growth. Despite other technologies like RFID, barcodes' simplicity, universality, and low cost have limited the role of other systems.

Did You Know?

• The barcode was invented by Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver and patented in the US in 1952.
• Woodland's inspiration came from Morse code; he formed his first barcode from sand on the beach.