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KF5JRV > TODAY 26.06.24 14:01l 89 Lines 3841 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Jun 26
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Sent: 240626/1146Z 1402@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.24
On the morning of June 26, 1974, at a supermarket
in Troy, Ohio, a pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit
chewing gum becomes the first grocery item scanned
with a Universal Product Code, or UPC. The result
of years of scientific experimentation and
industry cooperation, the UPC barcode would go
on to be used well beyond the grocery checkout
counter, becoming a ubiquitous feature of modern
commerce, with billions of barcodes scanned daily.
The first version of a barcode was drafted by
inventor Joe Woodland in the sand on Miami Beach
in 1949. He designed a pattern of thick and thin
lines arranged in concentric circles, readable by
a scanner from any angle. Woodland took the
inspiration for his design from Morse Code, but
instead of communicating through dots and dashes,
the barcode relayed information through thick and
thin lines. He applied for a patent for his
invention in 1949 and received it in 1952.
It took two decades to translate Woodland's idea
into a functional barcode scanning system. In 1949,
there was no practical way to "read" a barcode's
image. The invention of the laser in 1960 created
new possibilities for scanning technology. At the
same time, computers became smaller and more
affordable. Barcode scanners took advantage of both
these advances. The new scanners used the ultra-bright
light of a laser to sweep across the black-and-white
image of a barcode, communicating information about
the product and the price to a computerized cash register.
Grocery industry executives recognized the potential
of these new technologies to improve efficiency and
keep costs down in their stores. They also realized
that they needed a standardized system to effectively
introduce barcodes industry-wide. The "Ad Hoc Committee
of the Grocery Industry" convened in 1970 to develop a
plan for implementing barcodes and scanners at the
nation's grocery checkouts. Kroger, independently,
became the first store to install a pilot program of
barcode scanners in their stores in 1972. Kroger and
RCA collaborated on an automated supermarket checkstand,
which used Woodland's "bull's-eye" barcode design.
The round design proved somewhat unreliable, however,
because it tended to get smudged coming out of the
printer. The Ad Hoc Committee selected a different design
ignn, based on a last-minute submission by IBM engineer
George Laurer. He redesigned the barcode as a rectangle,
rather than a bull's-eye, which made the image easier to
print accurately. Laurer's winning design, named the
Universal Product Code (UPC), combined vertical stripes
with a row of 12 digits. Clyde Dawson, head of research
and development for Marsh Supermarkets, ceremonially
scanned the first grocery item with a UPC on June 26, 1974,
at 8:01 a.m. It was a pack of Wrigley's chewing gum,
proving that barcodes could work on even the smallest items.
The new barcodes and scanners in grocery stores
garnered mixed reactions from shoppers, however. Some
thought the lines and numbers represented the "mark
of the beast" from the biblical Book of Revelation.
More widespread was the belief that barcodes would
provide stores with a new way to rip off customers.
The Consumer Federation of America launched a campaign
against barcodes nationwide, and protesters picketed
stores with barcode scanners. The U.S. Senate even
held a "symposium on the Universal Product Coding
System." Due to the pushback from customers, grocery
stores were slow to embrace barcode scanners, with
only 1 percent adopting the new devices by the end
of the 1970s. A decade later, however, the consumer
backlash had ebbed, and more than half of U.S.
grocery stores relied on UPC scanners. Since then,
it has become arguably the most pervasive technology
of the retail shopping experience.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
Email KF5JRV@gmail.com
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