Chapter 1: The Pre-Barcode World |
In short: Before barcodes became a ubiquitous part of daily life, businesses in every sector grappled with the immense cost and inefficiency of manual data entry. The need for speed, accuracy, and automation drove the development of the first automatic identification technologies. This chapter explores the challenges of the pre-barcode era, the historical path to the first practical systems, and the early symbologies that laid the groundwork for a revolution. It examines how Code 39, an early and resilient alphanumeric barcode, found a niche in diverse industries---from military logistics to automotive manufacturing and healthcare---not because it was the most advanced, but because its specific technical characteristics made it the right tool for the right job at the right time. |
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1.1 The World Before Automated Data Capture |
Imagine a world where every single item sold in a store, every part shipped to a factory, and every book borrowed from a library required a person to manually write down or type its identifying information. This was the reality of commerce and logistics until the latter half of the 20th century. The pre-barcode world was a world of paper, pencils, and painstaking, error-prone human effort. |
The Grocery Industry's Checkout Bottleneck |
The most visible and urgent problem existed in the American grocery industry. In the decades following World War II, supermarkets grew larger and offered a wider variety of products than ever before. This expansion brought with it a significant operational challenge: the checkout process. Cashiers would manually pick up each item, locate its price (often printed on the packaging or on a small sticker), and enter the price into a mechanical or early electronic cash register. This was a slow, tedious process that led to long queues and frustrated customers . |
The process was not only slow but also error-prone. A cashier could misread a price, key in a wrong number, or forget to charge for an item. These errors resulted in lost revenue for the store and annoyed customers who noticed discrepancies. The problem was so acute that in 1966, one of the largest U.S. supermarket chains, Kroger, made a desperate plea to the technology industry, begging for a solution to speed up checkout lines . This plea was a catalyst, leading the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) to invest heavily in developing the first working scanning systems . |
Beyond the checkout counter, the grocery industry struggled with inventory management. Knowing what was in stock, what was selling, and what needed to be reordered was a logistical nightmare. Stock counts were performed manually, often after the store closed, which was a time-consuming and disruptive process. This lack of real-time data led to a perpetual cycle of overstocking some items and running out of others, both of which were costly. The industry recognized that it needed a system of product identification that could be read automatically and linked to a computer, but such technology did not yet exist . |
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Beyond Groceries: A Spectrum of Manual Inefficiency |
The struggles of the grocery industry were a microcosm of a much larger problem. Across the economy, organizations of all types were drowning in the paperwork and inefficiency of manual data entry. |
The Logistics of the Railroads |
One of the earliest and most ambitious attempts to create an automated identification system came from the railroad industry. Railroads had thousands of freight cars that were constantly moving across the country. Tracking these cars---knowing their location, maintenance history, and contents---was essential for efficient operation. Before the automated system, this was done by human 'car clerks' who would walk through rail yards, write down the identification numbers of each car, and then have that information manually entered into a central database. This process was incredibly slow and inaccurate, and by the time the data was processed, the train had often already moved on. |
The problem was so costly that in 1959, the Association of American Railroads held a seminar to find a technological solution . Their search would eventually lead to the KarTrak system, which used a series of colored reflective stripes on the sides of rail cars. When a train passed a scanner, it would decode the pattern to identify the car . Although the KarTrak system was eventually abandoned due to high maintenance costs and technological limitations, it was a crucial precursor to the modern barcode. |
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Manufacturing: The Need for Traceability |
The manufacturing industry, particularly in sectors like automotive and aerospace, faced its own data challenges. Factories were becoming more complex, with vast supply chains and intricate assembly processes. Keeping track of the hundreds of thousands of individual parts that went into a single car or airplane was a monumental task . Manufacturers needed a way to trace parts from their origin through the entire production process to ensure quality control and manage inventory. Manual tracking systems were prone to errors that could lead to production delays, flawed assemblies, and costly recalls. |
The US Postal Service |
Even the US Postal Service (USPS) sought to improve efficiency with automation. While not a barcode, the introduction of the Zone Improvement Plan (ZIP) Code in 1963 was a key step in the journey toward automated mail sorting . The five-digit code was designed to allow mail to be grouped and routed more efficiently, reducing the reliance on manual sorting by postal workers who had to read handwritten addresses. This was an example of how a simple coded system could dramatically improve the flow of information and goods. |
Libraries and Inventory Control |
In the 1960s, libraries were also struggling with manual cataloging and checkout systems. The process of borrowing a book was a lengthy one: a librarian would retrieve a physical card from a pocket in the book, stamp it with a due date, and then file the card at the circulation desk. Returning a book was equally manual. The Plessey Code, developed in England in the late 1960s, was one of the first barcode systems designed specifically for library use, automating the process and freeing up librarians to help patrons instead of managing paper trails . |
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1.2 The Search for a Standard: The Birth of the UPC |
The diverse efforts in the 1960s highlighted a fundamental problem: a lack of standardization. For any automatic identification system to be successful on a large scale, there needed to be a single, agreed-upon method of encoding data that all manufacturers, retailers, and equipment makers could use. |
The Committee and the Contenders |
By the late 1960s, the grocery industry recognized that it couldn't solve its problem alone. In 1970, the National Association of Food Chains (NAFC) asked Logicon, Inc. to develop a proposal for an industry-wide barcode system . This led to the formation of the Universal Grocery Products Identification Code (UGPIC), which would eventually become the Universal Product Code (UPC). A key part of this project was the establishment of a Symbol Selection Committee, which was tasked with choosing a single barcode standard from a group of competing proposals . |
Seven different companies submitted designs to the committee. The early favorite was RCA, which had invested heavily in a 'bullseye' or circular barcode . Their system was based on the original patent from Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver, who had conceived of the idea for an automated checkout system in the late 1940s . RCA had even conducted a successful in-store test at a Kroger store in Cincinnati in 1972 using their system, giving them a significant head start . |
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The IBM Innovation |
At the last minute, IBM entered the competition. While they had initially shown little interest in barcode technology, they realized the commercial potential and assembled a team to create a superior design. Crucially, they brought in Norman Joseph Woodland, the original co-inventor of the barcode, who was working at IBM . The IBM team, led by engineer George J. Laurer, quickly realized a critical flaw in the bullseye design: it was too susceptible to printing errors . |
Because the bullseye pattern was round, a small smudge on the label could distort the concentric rings of bars and spaces, making the code unreadable. To solve this problem, the IBM team shifted to a rectangular, linear design. In this new design, the information was encoded in the direction of the lines. If a printer smudge occurred, it would simply make the line slightly longer---its width would remain unchanged, and the code could still be scanned perfectly . This simple but elegant design innovation was the key to IBM's success. |
The IBM team also had to meet the committee's strict specifications: the barcode had to be small (less than 1.5 square inches), readable from any direction (which they achieved by designing a scanner that could read the code regardless of its orientation), and printable with existing printing technology . On March 30, 1973, the Symbol Selection Committee chose IBM's rectangular barcode design, which Laurer had refined from Woodland and Silver's original concept. It was a historic moment that paved the way for the modern era of automatic identification . |
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The First Scan: A Moment in History |
It took another year to fully develop the hardware and software required for the system. Finally, on June 26, 1974, at 8:01 a.m., history was made at a Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio. A cashier named Sharon Buchanan scanned a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum, marking the first commercial use of the UPC barcode . The item was chosen deliberately because it was small, proving the scanner could read even the smallest of labels. The system was a resounding success. Within weeks of installation, the store's sales had increased by about 10 to 12%, simply because shoppers could be processed faster. The store's operating costs also dropped by 1 to 2% due to more accurate inventory management . |
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1.3 The Dawn of the Barcode Era: Early Symbologies |
While the UPC was chosen as the standard for the grocery industry in North America, the broader market had a need for a different kind of barcode. The UPC was designed to encode a simple, 12-digit numeric identifier. However, other industries---such as the military, manufacturing, and logistics---needed a barcode that could encode letters, numbers, and special characters. This led to the creation and widespread adoption of Code 39. |
The Technical Features of Code 39 |
Code 39, also known as Code 3 of 9, was introduced in 1974 by the Intermec Corporation . It was a landmark invention because it was the first barcode specification that allowed for the encoding of both numbers and alphabetic symbols . Its name is derived from its unique structure: each character in the code is represented by a pattern of nine elements---five bars and four spaces---and exactly three of these nine elements are wide, while the other six are narrow . This 'three of nine' pattern is the foundation of its most important features. |
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The Self-Checking Property |
A crucial technical feature of Code 39 is that it is a 'self-checking' barcode . This means that a single printing defect (like a bar that is too wide or too narrow) cannot transform one valid character into another. Because each character has its own unique pattern of three wide elements, a printing error that changes the width of a single element will create a pattern that does not correspond to any known character. The scanner's decoder will detect this as an error and reject the scan, rather than misreading it as a different character. This self-checking property is why Code 39 does not require a mandatory check digit, though one can be added for an extra layer of security . This made it much more reliable for industrial applications where label quality might not always be perfect. |
Character Set and Encoding |
The standard Code 39 character set is surprisingly robust, including 43 characters: uppercase letters (A-Z), digits (0-9), and a set of special characters like space, hyphen, period, dollar sign, slash, plus, and percent . The start and stop characters, which tell the scanner where the barcode begins and ends, are represented by an asterisk (*) . |
While Code 39 cannot natively encode lowercase letters or the full ASCII character set, an extension called 'Code 39 Extended' was developed to do so. It works by using two-character combinations to represent a single ASCII character . For example, a lowercase 'a' is encoded as '+A' . While this enables the encoding of a much wider range of data, it roughly doubles the length of the resulting barcode. |
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Data Density and Limitations |
The main limitation of Code 39 is its low data density . Because each character requires a pattern of nine elements with wide bars, a Code 39 barcode takes up significantly more horizontal space than more modern symbologies. For instance, a Code 39 barcode can be up to 40% wider than a Code 128 barcode encoding the same amount of data . This means that Code 39 is not ideal for applications where label space is limited . The recommended size for reliable scanning also requires a minimum bar height and 'quiet zones' (empty margins) on both sides of the code, further increasing its physical footprint . In practice, Code 39 barcodes are typically limited to 20 to 50 characters to remain a practical size for printing and scanning . |
Code 39 in the Wild: Cross-Industry Adoption |
Despite its lower data density, Code 39's alphanumeric capability and self-checking reliability made it the go-to standard for a vast array of applications, establishing its legacy as one of the most widely-used barcode symbologies in history . |
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The LOGMARS System and the US Military |
One of Code 39's most significant early adoptions was by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) for their LOGMARS (Logistics Applications of Automated Marking and Reading Symbols) program . LOGMARS mandated the use of Code 39 for identifying and tracking all military supplies and equipment. A key specification, MIL-STD-130, required all government property to be marked with a Code 39 barcode, often with the optional Modulo 43 check digit for extra data integrity . By adopting a single, standardized symbology across all branches of the military, the DoD drastically improved its supply chain efficiency, eliminating massive amounts of manual data entry that had previously been used to track everything from individual weapons to spare parts and food rations. |
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Automotive and Aerospace Manufacturing |
The automotive and aerospace industries, which required tight control over parts and components, also quickly embraced Code 39. The Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) developed standards based on Code 39 (specifically AIAG B-1) for part labeling throughout the supply chain . A single Code 39 label on an engine block, for instance, could contain its part number, serial number, and manufacturing date, all of which could be scanned and automatically tracked as it moved through the assembly line. |
Similarly, in aircraft construction, where traceability is a matter of safety, Code 39 labels were used to track every component of an airplane, from the smallest rivet to the most complex avionics system . This allowed manufacturers to maintain detailed quality control records for every part, a critical requirement for regulatory compliance and safety. |
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Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals |
The healthcare industry, particularly in North America, was another major adopter of Code 39. The Health Industry Bar Code (HIBC) standard, developed by the Health Industry Business Communications Council, built its foundation on Code 39 . This standard is used for labeling pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and patient identification wristbands. |
The alphanumeric capability was crucial here. A barcode on a patient's wristband could include their name, date of birth, and patient ID, allowing nurses and doctors to scan it and ensure they were administering the correct medication or treatment to the right patient. This use of barcodes in a clinical setting dramatically reduced the incidence of medication errors, a leading cause of preventable patient harm. |
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Warehousing, Inventory, and Beyond |
In warehouses and distribution centers, Code 39 became the workhorse for inventory management. Its ability to encode product identifiers, lot numbers, and bin locations made it an indispensable tool for tracking goods as they moved through the supply chain . Libraries used it for checking out books, hospitals used it to track expensive equipment, and even manufacturing plants used it to route paperwork and work orders . |
In Germany, Code 39 was even adopted as a standard for labeling pharmaceutical products (known as PZN or Pharmazentralnummer), where it was used to identify specific drug packages at the point of sale . |
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1.4 Conclusion: From Manual Entry to a Foundation for the Future |
The pre-barcode world was a world of inefficiency. The manual systems used in retail, manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare were slow, expensive, and fraught with the potential for human error. The compelling need for automation in the grocery industry was the primary catalyst for a revolution, but the economic pressures were felt across every sector of the economy. The invention of the modern barcode in the early 1970s was not the work of a single person, but the culmination of decades of research, experimentation, and standardization. |
In summary: The journey from manual entry to automated data capture was driven by a universal need for accuracy and efficiency. Key historical milestones include the USPS's ZIP code in 1963 , the KarTrak railroad system in 1967 , RCA's bullseye barcode test at Kroger in 1972 , and finally, the adoption of the IBM-designed UPC and the first commercial scan in 1974 . |
Code 39 stands as a powerful example of how technical design choices determine a technology's adoption. Its creator, Intermec, gave the industry a robust, alphanumeric symbology that was 'good enough' to solve the problems of the time . Its self-checking design meant that it was inherently reliable without the need for a check digit, a key feature for industrial environments where labels could become damaged . While its low data density made it less than ideal for space-constrained applications, its alphanumeric capacity was essential for industries that needed to track more than just a product's price . This combination of features led to its widespread adoption in the LOGMARS military system, automotive manufacturing, healthcare, and countless other applications . |
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The barcode revolution was not the end of the story, but the beginning. Code 39, and the UPC, provided the bridge from a world of paper and manual labor to a world of data and automation. They established the fundamental concept that a simple, scannable symbol could unlock a wealth of digital information, dramatically improving efficiency and accuracy across virtually every industry. This chapter's exploration of the pre-barcode world and the dawn of standardized symbologies sets the stage for the remarkable technological evolution that would follow, from 1D to 2D barcodes, RFID, and beyond, all of which are built on the principles of automatic identification that were first established in this era. |
cs@easiersoft.com