Who Were The Fathers Of The Barcode?
Barcodes are everywhere today, but it hasn’t actually been that way for very long. Bernard Silver and Norman Woodland started working on the idea in the late 1940s. Previous attempts at developing a similar system using punch cards never caught on due to the prohibitive equipment costs and the Great Depression.
Silver was so enthused by the problem, he continued pursuing it without funding. The first system he and Woodland developed used ultraviolet ink, but it proved both too expensive and untrustworthy, as the ink faded. He later claimed that Morse code gave him the inspiration that led to his first successful barcode design. He took the Morse code dots and dashes and put them in rows.
Of course having a system to read these codes was another matter. For this Silver adapted technology used for reading the sound scores on movie film. In 1949, the pair applied for a patent they received in 1952. Silver started working for IBM in 1951, who was, ironically, deeply involved in punch-card technology. Silver tried to interest the corporate giant in his project, and IBM actually commissioned a report which indicated the idea was feasible, but involved technology that was simply unavailable at the time.
It didn’t help that the prototype barcode scanner reading device set the paper ablaze either, but it did work. Still, IBM’s report proved accurate, as the 500-watt incandescent bulb was simply too much. The prototype reader system was also too large to be practical and they had no easy way to make it smaller. IBM attempted to buy the patents from Silver and Woodland, but they eventually got a better offer from Philco. Before the project with Philco could go very far Bernard Silver was killed in a car crash.
Meanwhile it was becoming clear that barcode scanning technology could be used by grocery stores who were trying to maintain the right amount of inventory, and railroads struggling to keep track of their many cars. Work had already been done in the railroad industry on a system with the same objectives as Silver and Woodlands barcodes.
The system used for rail cars was the work of David Collins working along with the Sylvania company. Collins recognized the application of the technology to industries other than railroads, but Sylvania was not interested. As a result Collins left his arrangement with Sylvania and created his own company called Computer Identics Corporation. Meanwhile Philco sold the barcode patent rights to RCA.
Development began in earnest in the late 1960s, as the grocery industry now demanded such technology. Manufacturing was also becoming more complex and competitive and needed more sophisticated methods of inventory and asset control.
The first installations made by Computer Identics were relatively crude systems placed in a Michigan General Motors plant and a warehouse in New Jersey owned by the General Trading Company. Meanwhile at RCA they were working on a laser-guided barcode system which was first installed at Kroger for testing. By the 1970s IBM became involved in barcode technology development again and put Norman Woodland in charge of their project. Barcode technology’s future had finally arrived.
Article Source – AgentMapIt Business Articles