On October 7, 1952 Bernard Silver and Norman Joseph Woodland received US Patent 2,612,994 for “Classifying Apparatus and Method.”

In 1948, Bernard Silver, then a graduate student at Drexel University, overheard a conversation that would eventually lead to the development of the bar code. The president of a local food chain was looking for a system that would automatically read information during the check out process. Silver told another graduate student, Norman Joseph Woodland about the conversation and they began working on solutions.

Their first working system used patterns of ink that glowed under ultraviolet light. The ultraviolet ink had problems with stability and was extremely expensive to print. Still, Woodland was convinced that he had a workable idea. In order to have more time to work on the project, he quit Drexel, sold some stock and moved in with his grandfather in Florida. Continue reading “Invention of the Bar Code Patented: Saving You Time at Checkout” →