---
title: "Give Me a Shot"
url: https://givemeashot.org/who-were-the-fathers-of-the-barcode/
description: "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."
---

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## [Who Were The Fathers Of The Barcode?](https://givemeashot.org/who-were-the-fathers-of-the-barcode)

#### Saturday, January 30th, 2010 | [Great Sites](https://givemeashot.org/category/great-sites)

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 had a fairly clear idea of what needed to be done and he was obsessed enough to use his own money to find a system that worked. 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. 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](http://www.waspbarcode.com/scanners) 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. While IBM offered to purchase the patent for far less than it was worth, Silver and Woodland persevered. In 1962, Philco bought the patents. Unfortunately Bernard Silver died in a car crash the following year.

Even back then the need for a [barcode scanner](http://www.waspbarcode.co.uk/barcode_scanners/) system capable of keeping track of inventory was significant. Two prime examples were grocery stores and railroads, but as it turned out a system for tracking individual items had application in almost any industry. The railroad industry, still very strong in those days, adopted a system similar to the barcode

The system used for rail cars was the work of David Collins working along with the Sylvania company. Collins tried to interest Sylvania in a smaller version of the system which could be used on anything, but Sylvania turned him down. 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.

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.

*Article Source - AgentMapIt [Business Articles](http://www.agentmapit.com/blogeasy/)*

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