Jason English
Bar Codes & Mad Magazine
by Jason English - October 7, 2009 - 1:05 PM

barcode

If you’ve done any Googling this morning, you probably know today is the 57th anniversary of the first bar code patent.

From The Christian Science Monitor:

On October 7, 1952, inventors Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver were granted the first patent for their invention. The only difference between the bar code we know today and the one Woodland and Silver invented was that it was comprised of a series of concentric circles, not the 59 black-and-white vertical lines synonymous with the current design.

As long as we’re on the subject, let’s take a look back at a couple Mad Magazine issues that drew attention to the UPC symbol they were forced to stick on the cover, starting in 1978:

mad-mag

mad203id

[Images courtesy of Doug Gilford's Mad Cover Site.]

Other Creative UPC Uses

dbarcodes

The Japanese firm D-Barcode has been adding a little life to the plain old UPC symbols. For lots more examples, check out this cool round-up of bar codes Dark Roasted Blend put together last year.

The Science Behind Bar Codes

And if you’ve ever wondered how bar codes work, our friends over at HowStuffWorks have a detailed look.

twitterbanner.jpg

« Previous Post   -   Next Post »
Click here to get a Risk-Free issue of mental_floss magazine
Comments (3)

  1. If you look at the Aldi store brand stuff, a lot of it has barcode wrapping around the entire package. They try to disguise it as a decoration, but it’s obviously to improve scanning speed. It’s a good idea.

    posted by Dave on 10-7-2009 at 1:19 pm

  2. Who was the project manager at IBM? My friend believes it was his grandfather but we have no way of proving it and his grandfather past away.

    posted by Kari on 10-7-2009 at 4:00 pm

  3. I just scanned the Google one and it comes out as : Google….
    How geeky cute.

    posted by Chrystani on 10-7-2009 at 5:11 pm

Comment

commenting policy