Editing Universal Product Code (section)

== History ==
{{Duplication|section|dupe=Barcode#History|date=December 2013}}

Wallace Flint proposed an automated checkout system in 1932 using [[punched card]]s. [[Bernard Silver]] and [[Norman Joseph Woodland]], a graduate student from [[Drexel University|Drexel Institute of Technology]], developed a bull's-eye-style code and applied for the patent in 1949.<ref>{{cite patent |country=US |number=2612994 |status=patent |title=Classifying Apparatus and Method |gdate=7 October 1952 |fdate=20 October 1949 |inventor1-first=Norman J. |inventor1-last=Woodland |inventor2-first=Bernard |inventor2-last=Silver |inventor2-link=Bernard Silver}}</ref><ref name="IMBhist"/>

In the 1960s and early 1970s, [[Rail transport|railroads]] in North America experimented with [[KarTrak|multicolor bar codes]] for tracking [[Railroad car|railcars]], but this system was eventually abandoned<ref>{{Cite journal |date=March 2010 |title=A Brief History of the Bar Code |journal=Esquire |volume=153 |issue=3 |page=42 |url=http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/48193041/brief-history-bar-code|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160601051655/http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/48193041/brief-history-bar-code|url-status=dead|archive-date=1 June 2016}}</ref> and replaced with a radio-based system called [[Automatic equipment identification|Automatic Equipment Identification (AEI)]].

In 1973, a group of trade associations from the grocery industry formed the [[GS1 US|Uniform Product Code Council]] (UPCC) which, with the help of consultants Larry Russell and Tom Wilson of [[McKinsey & Company]], defined the numerical format that formed the basis of the Uniform Product Code.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mckinsey.com/careers/values_that_matter/our_innovative_history |title=Our innovative history – McKinsey firsts |year=2013 |work=mckinsey.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012024123/https://www.mckinsey.com/careers/values_that_matter/our_innovative_history |archive-date=12 October 2013 |url-status=dead}} (see slide 10 of 18)</ref> Technology firms including Charegon, [[IBM]], Litton-Zellweger, Pitney Bowes-Alpex, Plessey-Anker, [[RCA]], Scanner Inc., Singer, and [[DYMO Corporation|Dymo Industries]]/Data General, put forward alternative proposals for symbol representations to the council.{{Citation needed|date=April 2011}} The Symbol Selection Committee finally chose to implement the IBM proposal designed by [[George J. Laurer]] in the North Carolina [[Research Triangle Park]] but with a slight modification to the font in the human readable area.{{Citation needed|date=April 2011}}

The first UPC-marked item ever to be scanned at a retail checkout was a 10-pack (50 sticks) of [[Wrigley's]] [[Juicy Fruit]] chewing gum, purchased at the [[Marsh Supermarkets|Marsh supermarket]] in [[Troy, Ohio]], at 8:01&nbsp;a.m. on 26 June 1974.<ref name=Nelson>{{cite book|last1=Nelson|first1=Benjamin|title=Punched Cards to Bar Codes: A 200 Year Journey with Descriptions of over 260 Codes|year=1997|publisher=Helmers Publishing|location=Peterborough, N.H.|isbn=978-091126112-7}}</ref> The [[NCR Voyix|NCR]] cash register rang up 67 cents.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Alfred |first=Randy |url=https://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/06/dayintech_0626?currentPage=2 |title=June 26, 1974: By Gum! There's a New Way to Buy Gum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100824113107/http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/06/dayintech_0626?currentPage=2 |archive-date=24 August 2010 |url-status=live |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |date=26 June 2008}}</ref> 
The shopping cart also contained other barcoded items but the gum was the first one picked up at the checkout. A facsimile of the gum packet went on display at the [[Smithsonian Institution]]'s [[National Museum of American History|American history museum]] in [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://harvardmagazine.com/2005/09/scanning-species-html |title=Scanning Species |version=September–October 2005 |first=Nathan |last=Heller |magazine=[[Harvard Magazine]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The History of the Bar Code|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/history-bar-code-180956704/|publisher=Smithsonian|date=23 September 2015|access-date=12 August 2021|archive-date=9 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220209200805/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/history-bar-code-180956704/|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Murray Eden]] was a consultant on the team that created the Universal Product Code barcode.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Oral-History: Murray Eden - Engineering and Technology History Wiki|url=https://ethw.org/Oral-History:Murray_Eden#About_Murray_Eden|date=10 November 1999|access-date=4 January 2021|website=ethw.org|archive-date=21 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121012742/https://ethw.org/Oral-History:Murray_Eden#About_Murray_Eden|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author=National Commission on Productivity and Work Quality|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=je7ugzk85CYC&pg=PA15|title=Technology Applied to the Food Industry: A Preliminary Report|date=1975|page=15|language=en|access-date=14 January 2021|archive-date=19 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319090946/https://books.google.com/books?id=je7ugzk85CYC&pg=PA15|url-status=live}}</ref> As Chairman of a committee of scientists at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], he helped "select a symbol that would endure the inevitable rush of technology that lay ahead."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Haberman|first=Alan L.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yeKRAAAAIAAJ&q=Murray+Eden|title=Twenty-Five Years Behind Bars: The Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the U.P.C. at the Smithsonian Institution, September 30, 1999|date=2001|publisher=Harvard University Wertheim Publications Committee|isbn=978-0-674-00657-7|pages=74,108|language=en}}</ref> He chose the font, and he came up with the idea to add numbers to the bottom, which is a [[fail-safe]] system, in case the barcode reader is not working correctly.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Casanova|first=Stephanie|title=Murray Eden, a biomedical engineer with a love of singing, dies in Tucson at 99|url=https://tucson.com/news/local/murray-eden-a-biomedical-engineer-with-a-love-of-singing-dies-in-tucson-at-99/article_30e24a8e-7b61-56e7-9b32-bc521fb11707.html|access-date=14 January 2021|website=Arizona Daily Star|date=18 August 2020 |language=en|archive-date=14 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114060837/https://tucson.com/news/local/murray-eden-a-biomedical-engineer-with-a-love-of-singing-dies-in-tucson-at-99/article_30e24a8e-7b61-56e7-9b32-bc521fb11707.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Roth|first=Brad|date=17 April 2020|title=Murray Eden|url=https://bradroth.medium.com/murray-eden-740c0ab08694|access-date=14 January 2021|website=Medium|language=en|archive-date=21 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121043615/https://bradroth.medium.com/murray-eden-740c0ab08694|url-status=live}}</ref>