It is perhaps the nerdiest of birthdays, but today, the barcode turns 50.

Do we all see it dozens of times every day? Yes (it’s used more times per day than Google worldwide). Any idea how it works? Not really. Know who invented it? Probably not. 

But as the humble little design that changed the world hits a big milestone, it deserves, at the very least, a whistlestop history recap.

The barcode was initially devised by Norman Joseph Woodland. His first major invention, a system for playing elevator music, was kiboshed by his father – who believed the high-risk field of lift tunes was controlled by the mob. Instead, Woodland turned his attention to the more respectable sector of encoding product data.

It was time as a Boy Scout that prompted his breakthrough when, having drawn a series of Morse Code dots and dashes into the sand on a beach in Miami, he extended them vertically through the sand, drawing in an instant the first barcode.

However, from there he progressed to creating a circular barcode, similar to a bullseye. It was an IBM colleague, George J Laurer, who turned Woodland’s original sandy rectangle into the ubiquitous design seen on biscuits and more the world over. And it was on this day in 1973 that IBM’s Universal Product Code (UPC) was selected by industry leaders to be adopted as standard.

Just over a year later, on June 26, 1974, a packet of Wrigley’s chewing gum sold at a supermarket in Ohio became the first product scanned at a checkout using Laurer’s design. The barcode crossed the Atlantic in typically British fashion, first appearing on a box of Melrose tea bags at a supermarket in Spalding, Lincolnshire, in October 1979.

It’s not the first time tea has spurred a revolution, but this one brought down the length of queues, not a king. In fact, supermarket checkouts sped up by 40%.

Less visibly, but more critically, barcodes have been adopted by healthcare systems around the world, reducing both medical errors and the time spent on paperwork. Although perhaps not adopted widely enough.

GS1, the world’s only authorised provider of Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs) – the unique number that powers each and every barcode – reports that if the barcode was adopted by every hospital in England, more than 3.2million hours of staff time and nearly £120million could be saved and re-invested back into patient care.

However, it was the biggest health emergency in 100 years that threw barcodes back in the public spotlight.

Having rapidly spread across the globe and transformed shopping and travel (think boarding passes) among other industries, it was natural for this innovative technology to continue evolving and combine with another revolutionary invention – the internet. 

Enter the quick response code, or QR code, a barcode for the digital age. Having initially been seen as something of a gimmick, the contactless world of the pandemic saved these new pixel-based barcodes from extinction as users scanned them for everything from ordering a socially-distanced meal to proving their Covid-free status to jet off on holiday. (And soon to be found on all stamps).

All of this from a few dots and dashes drawn in the sand.

Anne Godfrey, GS1 UK CEO, says: ‘Today the barcode is more frequently used than Google. It has revolutionised our day-to-day in ways most do not realise – keeping our shelves stocked with products and ingredients from around the world, helping us find and buy products online, ensuring what we consume is genuine and safe, helping the NHS save time, money and lives – and much more. 

‘By combining two of the most important inventions of the 20th Century, the internet and the barcode, the next generation of barcodes – QR codes – will connect physical products to the digital world. This allows consumers to access virtually limitless, real-time information about the products they buy at the scan of a smartphone – helping them make more sustainable, safer and smarter purchasing decisions.’

IBM distinguished engineer and master inventor Andy Stanford-Clark adds: “The barcode is just one example of many retail innovations and technologies that IBM has developed over the decades, from the world’s first connected cash machine here in the UK, to scanners, automated stock management systems and even handling 90% of financial transactions in the background, software that is also developed here in the UK.’

So yes, barcodes definitely fall in the nerdy category – but they’re also undoubtedly revolutionary. In a Venn diagram, they sit right alongside Ada Lovelace and Steve Jobs.

Plus, nerds are cool nowadays, so remember those names for when they inevitably pop up in a pub quiz. 

Norman Joseph Woodland and George J Laurer – bigger than Google (sorry Larry, sorry Sergey).

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