We see bar codes on products on almost a daily basis, but have you ever stopped to think about when and where the bar code came from? Although most people may not be old enough to remember it, there was a time without the bar code. It all started in 1948 thanks to a man named Joseph Woodland. He was an engineer that was attempting to solve what seemed like a complex problem: coming up with a way for a computer to be able to specifically identify any product. The solution? Bar codes.
Throughout the next few years Woodland came up with the invention, and bar codes were officially patented in 1952. However, the first bar codes looked quite a bit different than what we have today. They were circles that almost looked like bull’s eyes, rather than the standard rectangle composed of lines we are all accustomed to.
Although the bar code officially existed in 1952, the machines needed to read it were not readily available to super markets. The technology was too expensive at the time, but this all changed 20 years later. An IBM engineer named George Laurer changed the shape of the bar code, allowing more of the code to fit into a small space on the product. Devices that could read the bar code were much cheaper, and the first item to be scanned turned out to be a pack of Wrigley’s chewing gum. Today, you will find a bar code on almost every product you can buy in a store.
The history of the bar code is longer than this, but we wanted to provide you with the broad strokes. For more news and facts about the bar code, keep checking back with the team at Thunderbird Technical Services!
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