Barcodes are small symbolic patterns that relay information about the identity of a product. We tend not to notice how pervasive barcodes have become, but it was not always that way.
Early use of barcode scanners involved labeling railroad cars. But barcodes didn’t become part of our everyday life until they were adopted by supermarkets.|But the barcode’s true commercial niche was in automating supermarket checkout systems.}
Now, barcode scanning is implemented by the US Post Office, The Department of Defense, and just about every industrial application you can think of. In 1948 Bernard Silver began research into a system that could automatically read product information. Together with Joseph Woodland, the first workable system was developed using ultraviolet ink. Modifications to this system, developed by Woodland while he was at IBM were based on Morse Code.
What Woodland and his team did was to extend the dots and dashes of the code into narrow or wide vertical lines capable of being interpreted by a reader. The paper would then be passed in front of a photo cell and a bright light would be shone through the paper. Later, a bulls-eye pattern was used so that scanning would work in either direction.
At first, barcode scanning was unreliable and expensive as it required investments from large corporations willing to test the technology’s potential. It wasn’t until 1961 that The Boston and Maine Railroads tested the system on gravel cars. Right around the same time the idea was being discussed by the large grocery chains in the U.S.
It was the Kroger chain who first volunteered to test the RCA system based on the bulls-eye code. In 1969 another company, Computer Identics installed test systems in a Michigan GM plant and a New Jersey warehousing company. These initial tests clearly showed that barcode technology had broad application to a wide range of industries and commercial applications. However, almost from the beginning the most common application of the technology was in large retail situations such as grocery stores. It helps businesses to improve trade efficiency and as a result, the economy as a whole.
The Universal Product Code (UPC) became the barcode standard in the mid 1970s. This was an 11 digit code to identify any product, and since then, industry has not been the same. Barcodes really came into their with the development of the standard 11 digit UPC. The acceptance of barcode technology was assured with these developments, and since the early 1980s it has become virtually universally used throughout business and government.
