How the Barcode System Was Invented

The barcode may be everywhere today, but it is a relatively recent invention. Bernard Silver and Norman Woodland started working on the idea in the late 1940s. Silver was likely unaware that another inventor had developed a system using punch cards back in the 1930s.

Silver was so enthused by the problem, he continued pursuing it without funding. Initial attempts used ultraviolet ink but the ink faded too quickly and the process was too expensive. 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. Silver and Woodland received their first patent for the new technology in 1952. By this time they had started working at IBM whose initial evaluation of the project concluded it was feasible but needed specific technological developments before it could be commercially viable.

Early barcode scanner prototypes indicated that the technology could work. The prototype was simply too large, and the technology for reducing it in size was unavailable in the 1950s. 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.

This alternative system was developed by David Collins and promoted by Sylvania. 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.

By the late 1960s we were beginning to see the forerunners of todays “big box stores” and they needed more convenient and reliable ways to control their inventory. Manufacturing was also becoming more complex and competitive and needed more sophisticated methods of inventory and asset control.

Collins’ Computer Identics quietly installed rudimentary, hand-built barcode and scanning systems in a General Motors (GM) plant in Michigan, and the General Trading Company in New Jersey. 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. The rest, they say, is history.

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