Giant leaps in technological progress are often measured in little, off-hand moments. Like the time, 25 years ago, that a supermarket clerk at a supermarket in Ohio, picked up a ten-pack of Wrigley’s spearmint gum and glided it carefully over a scanner. In the blink of an eye, the bar code revolution had begun!
These days, most of us take bar codes for granted. Not all of us, of course — former President George Bush ["That's Senior to you!"] seemed positively astonished to see a bar code scanner on the campaign trail in 1992.
The most famous application of a bar code may have been the giant symbol that ran on the cover of MAD magazine in April, 1978, accompanied by the sarcastic headline: “(MAD) Hopes This Issue Jams Every Computer in the Country…For Forcing Us To Deface Our Covers With This Yecchy UPC Symbol.”
The pranksters at MAD weren’t the only ones to openly express disdain for the newfangled technology. At first, shoppers weren’t so sure they liked them either. Instead of fast-moving lines, they experienced long and agonizing waits at the check-out counter as cashiers unfamiliar with the new technology searched up and down for the elusive bar code.
These prolonged displays of ineptitude left some customers wondering why these zebra-striped symbols were even necessary. Wasn’t a good old cash register faster and more reliable?
Fortunately, the situation improved (better scanners and familiarity with the process) and soon the technology began to deliver the faster lines and convenience it promised.
The bar code was hardly an overnight success story; in fact, it took almost thirty years to be adopted.
The story begins in 1948, when Bernard Silver and Norman J. Woodland devised a crude “Bull’s Eye Code” in hopes that it might one day be adopted as an automated checkout system. Silver and Woodland understood the antiquated cash register—long a fixture of retailing—could not maintain inventory or collect data. Their code could do that and more.
But, at first, the news was not encouraging. Computers were still too primitive, lasers had yet to be invented, and the response from industry was lukewarm.
The crucial turning point occurred in 1951 when the first optical character recognition (OCR) scanner was invented. This was the breakthrough that Silver and Woodland needed. Their revolution in retailing was finally possible.
Sixteen years later, the first bar code scanning system was installed at a Kroger Supermarket in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1967. But several kinks had yet to be ironed out. A major issue was uniformity. Hundreds of different bar codes potentially could create a full-scale retailing disaster. In response, in 1973, the Uniform Code Council was formed in Dayton, Ohio to establish the Universal Product Code.
One year later, on the outskirts of Dayton, the first UPC-reading scanner was installed at Marsh’s Supermarket. Industry experts flew in from all over the world—some as far away as Japan and Sweden—to witness the fabled ten-pack of Wrigley’s Gum being scanned. When the correct price appeared (67¢), a cheer rang out.
That was June 26, 1974. Twenty-five years later, hundreds of thousands companies are now using bar codes. And the bar code’s influence continues to grow. In hospitals, bar codes bracelets are attached to newborn babies to ensure their safety. There are conspiracy theories around it as well; a few people are convinced the “Mark of the Beast” is hidden somewhere within the bar code as part of a vast global conspiracy. Although it seems a tad bit unlikely (wouldn’t the devil be surfing the net by now?) it does point out one fact: the bar code has finally arrived!
You may be wondering what happened to Silver and Woodland—the so-called “fathers of the bar code.” Neither reaped the rewards of their invention. But there was one delicious twist for Woodland: in 1992, he was awarded the prestigious National Medal of Technology by that barcode enthusiast President George Herbert Walker Bush.