Barcode Machine Invented by
Though, Barcode is one of the most underrated inventions. They were discovered in 1970. Since, shoppers and stores life became easier and hassle free. All started with a hassle of a food vendor, to keep track of his inventory and their prices. So he decided to find a solution And he got in touch with The Drexel Institute of Technology to find out the solution for his problem. Bernard Silver from the institute accepted the challenge. He started working for an automatic solution to keep track of the items sold. Norman Joseph Woodland, One of the Silver’s students, came up with an idea of using ultraviolet sensitive ink. But the team was not happy as it was too expensive and unsuitable for printing patterns. But Woodland knows that it was a workable idea. So he left his job at the Institute, with some of his stock market profits to concentrate on the barcode solution. And in October, 1949, both Silver and Woodland filed the patent application. Unfortunately Silver died in 1962, before he could see his very first commercial of his invention- Barcode. Both Woodland & Silver couldn't make money from the business which turned out a gold mine later. This is because they sold their patent to RCA in year 1952 for a very small amount and this was long before the technology was commercialized. This patent expired in the year 1969, around 5 years before barcodes were used in the grocery stores. This was truly an invention that was ahead of the time.