THE BAR CODE STORY

After graduation in 1951, Woodland took a job with IBM in Binghamton, New York, but continued to develop the idea. Based on some crude experiments, he and Silver found that the idea worked, but how to make this into a practical device for use in supermarkets remained a mystery. The patent was granted in 1952 and sold to Philco in 1962. Silver died at the early age of 38 in 1963. Philco later sold the patent to RCA. 

In the late 1960s, lasers were becoming available, and Computer Identics successfiilly applied a helium-neon laser to read bar codes. In 

1969 they developed a bar code system for General Motors in Pontiac, MI to monitor the production of automotive axles, and another system for the General Trading Company of Carlsbad, NM to monitor shipments of products. These were very simple systems, but were successful. In mid- 

1970 RCA, in conjunction with the Kroger Grocery Chain and an industry consortium, developed standards for bar code use in the grocery industry. 

When IBM saw the potential for bar eodes demonstrated by RCA and the consortiiun, they remembered that Woodland had been the coinventor of the basic patent that had run out in 1969. He was transferred to an IBM plant in North Carolina where he helped develop the Universal Product Code (UPC) adopted in April 1973 which is now used throughout the world. 

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