JOSEPH WOODLAND
BAR CODE CO-INVENTOR
6-9-1921 - 9-12-2012
IT WAS born on a beach six decades ago, the product of a pressing need, an intellectual spark and the sweep of a young man's fingers through the sand.
The man on the beach that day was a mechanical-engineer-in-training named Joseph Woodland. With that stroke of his fingers - yielding a set of literal lines in the sand - Woodland, who has died at 91, conceived the modern bar code.
As graduate students, he and a classmate, Bernard Silver, created a technology, based on a printed series of wide and narrow striations, that encoded consumer-product information for optical scanning.
Woodland, who was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, spent World War II on the Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. After the war, he earned a bachelor's degree at the Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia in 1947.
The following year he was studying for a master's degree at Drexel when a local supermarket executive visited the campus and implored a dean to develop an efficient means of encoding product data.
Woodland realised that a code was needed to represent information visually. The only code he knew was Morse code, which he had learnt in the Boy Scouts. What would happen, he wondered one day, if Morse code, with its elegant simplicity and limitless combinatorial potential, were adapted graphically? Woodland, who was staying at his grandparents' home in Miami Beach, began trailing his fingers idly through the sand.
"For whatever reason - I didn't know - I pulled my hand toward me and drew four lines. I said: 'Golly! Now I have four lines, and they could be wide lines and narrow lines instead of dots and dashes."'
Woodland and Silver favoured a circular pattern for its omnidirectionality: a checkout clerk, they reasoned, could scan a product without regard for its orientation. On October 7, 1952, they were awarded US patent 2,612,994 for their invention.
But their method, which depended on an immense scanner equipped with a 500-watt light, was expensive and unwieldy, and it languished for years. The two men eventually sold their patent for $US15,000 - all they ever made from their invention.
By the time the patent expired at the end of the 1960s, Woodland was on the staff of IBM, where he worked from 1951 until his retirement in 1987. Over time, laser scanning technology and the advent of the microprocessor made the bar code viable. In the early 1970s, an IBM colleague, George Laurer, designed the familiar black-and-white rectangle, based on the Woodland-Silver model and drawing on Woodland's considerable input.
Woodland is survived by his wife, Jacqueline, two daughters and a granddaughter.
Frequently Asked Questions about this Article…
Who invented the barcode and what inspired the idea?
The barcode was co-invented by Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver. Woodland was inspired while idly drawing lines in the sand on a Miami Beach visit and adapted the idea of Morse code — learned in the Boy Scouts — into a visual code of wide and narrow lines to encode product information.
When was the barcode patented and what was the patent number?
Woodland and Silver were awarded US patent 2,612,994 for their barcode invention on October 7, 1952.
How did the original barcode design differ from the modern black-and-white barcode?
Their original design favoured a circular, omnidirectional pattern so a checkout clerk could scan items regardless of orientation; it used wide and narrow striations. The familiar black-and-white rectangular barcode was developed later by IBM engineer George Laurer in the early 1970s, drawing on Woodland’s input.
Why didn't the Woodland–Silver barcode take off immediately?
The initial system required an immense scanner with a 500-watt light, making it expensive and unwieldy. Because of those technical and cost issues it languished for years until advances in laser scanning and microprocessors made barcode technology practical.
Did the inventors make money from their barcode patent?
Woodland and Silver eventually sold their patent for US$15,000. According to the article, that was all they ever made from the invention.
What role did IBM play in making the barcode widely usable?
IBM employed Joseph Woodland from 1951 until his 1987 retirement. In the early 1970s, IBM engineer George Laurer designed the rectangular black-and-white barcode that became standard, building on the Woodland–Silver model and Woodland’s input. Advances at IBM and industry in laser scanning and microprocessors helped make barcodes viable.
How did Joseph Woodland's background contribute to the barcode invention?
Woodland was a mechanical-engineer-in-training who had worked on the Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge during World War II and earned a bachelor’s degree from Drexel in 1947. His familiarity with Morse code from the Boy Scouts and his engineering training helped him translate a code into visual wide-and-narrow lines.
When did barcode technology become practical for everyday retail use?
Barcode technology only became practical after improvements in laser scanning and the advent of the microprocessor. By the early 1970s, with IBM’s rectangular barcode design by George Laurer and advances in scanning technology, barcodes became viable for widespread retail use.
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