When did bar codes first appear on items?

Answer 1

I remember buying a 12" single in 1984 that had a bar code on it and that was the first time I'd seen one on a record sleeve. (It was ABC's How To Be A Millionaire, and I thought the bar code was a subtle joke).

Answer 2

"The first patent for a bar code type product (US Patent #2,612,994) was issued to inventors Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver on October 7, 1952. The Woodland and Silver bar code can be described as a "bull's eye" symbol, made up of a series of concentric circles.
Bar code was first used commercially in 1966, however, it was soon realized that there would have to be some sort of industry standard set. By 1970, the Universal Grocery Products Identification Code or UGPIC was written by a company called Logicon Inc. The first company to produce bar code equipment for retail trade use (using UGPIC) was the American company Monarch Marking in 1970, and for industrial use, the British company Plessey Telecommunications was also first in 1970. UGPIC evolved into the U.P.C. symbol set or Universal Product Code, which is still used in the United States. George J. Laurer is considered the inventor of U.P.C. or Uniform Product Code, which was invented in 1973.
In June of 1974, the first U.P.C. scanner was installed at a Marsh's supermarket in Troy, Ohio. The first product to have a bar code included was a packet of Wrigley's gum" (Bellis, n.d.).

Answer 3

The first step toward today's bar codes came in 1948, when Bernard Silver, a graduate student, overheard a conversation in the halls of Philadelphia's Drexel Institute of Technology. The president of a food chain was pleading with one of the deans to undertake research on capturing product information automatically at checkout. The dean turned down the request, but Bob Silver mentioned the conversation to his friend Norman Joseph Woodland, a twenty-seven-year-old graduate student and teacher at Drexel. The problem fascinated Woodland.

His first idea was to use patterns of ink that would glow under ultraviolet light, and the two men built a device to test the concept. It worked, but they encountered problems ranging from ink instability to printing costs. Nonetheless, Woodland was convinced he had a workable idea. He took some stock market earnings, quit Drexel, and moved to his grandfather's Florida apartment to seek solutions. After several months of work he came up with the linear bar code, using elements from two established technologies: movie soundtracks and Morse code.

Answer 4

They were 1st thought about in 1932@ Harverd Univ. by a post grad. The modern version came along in 1948, when a college student overheard his boss complaining about faster check-out
in his store. the 1st patent was sent in for approval in 1949.

Answer 5

In 1948 the first steps were made toward barcodes - see the complete history below

Answer 6

a bar code is the sign of the beast...

666... or in revalations... six three score and six... the mark of the beast...

study a normal bar code... it is a mark, scored three times at the bottom... with two rows of 6numbers....

"six, three score and six" which is what it says in revolations, it doesnt say 666 at all...

money is the antichrist... and barcodes are the sign... and the seal

Answer 7

you could try here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_codes