How the barcode got its stripes
The humble barcode began with sand on a beach and took more than two decades to reach the checkout.
Every product in the shop carries a small pattern of black and white stripes. It is so ordinary that we hardly see it. But the barcode had a long road to the checkout.
An idea in the sand#
In 1948, a graduate student named Bernard Silver overheard a local food chain executive asking a dean whether someone could create a way to read product information automatically at the checkout. Silver told a friend, Norman Joseph Woodland.
Woodland, so the story goes, was sitting on a beach in Florida and drew his fingers through the sand, making long lines. He thought of Morse code, with its dots and dashes, and imagined stretching them into thin and thick lines.
The patent#
Woodland and Silver filed a patent in 1949, and it was granted in 1952. Their first design was a circle, like a bullseye. But the technology to read it cheaply did not exist. Scanners needed lasers and computers, and those were still years away.
Waiting for technology#
As lasers and microchips became cheaper, the idea became possible. In the early 1970s, the grocery industry in the United States agreed on a standard code, based on a rectangular design of vertical bars developed at IBM. It became known as the Universal Product Code.
The first scan#
On 26 June 1974, at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio, a cashier scanned a pack of chewing gum. It is widely reported as the first item sold using a barcode scanner. The pack is now kept in a museum.
Why it mattered#
Barcodes made checkouts faster, helped shops keep track of stock and made prices easier to manage. Today they are used on parcels, library books, hospital wristbands and boarding passes.
The lesson#
The idea came first, and the world caught up later. Good ideas sometimes have to wait for the tools to be ready, which is a good reason to write them down.