Morse Code
“I just extended the dots and dashes downwards and made narrow lines and wide lines out of them”
During Woodland’s time in Miami Beach, he spent a lot of time brainstorming ideas and processes for the eventual barcode system. His childhood time in the Boy Scouts exposed him to Morse Code and he drew its dots and dashes in the sand, suddenly realizing these dots and dashes could be transformed.
History of Morse Code & The Telegraph:
Samuel Morse (1791-1872) developed a code that allocated a set of dots and dashes to each letter of the English alphabet, allowing for more simple transmission of complex messages across telegraph lines. These dots and dashes would become the inspiration for barcode design. Additionally, Samuel Morse was one of many inventors that helped develop the telegraph itself. In 1844, Samuel sent his first telegraph message from Washington to Baltimore. Approximately twenty years later in 1866, a telegraph line was laid across the Atlantic Ocean from the U.S. to Europe, signifying its rapidly growing significance to the world. Although the telegraph by the 1900s gave way to new technologies such as the telephone, fax machine and the Internet, it laid the groundwork for revolutionary communications changes that led to these innovations.
Shopping Before Barcodes:
Prior to barcodes in stores clerks would either memorize the specific item price or each item would have to be manually. Label or sticker guns were a common place in shops. The stocker boy or girl would have to go through every aisle and correct the updated sticker price. That meant when an item went on sale they would have to go through and stick over the existing sticker price. The process of checking out items was originally dependent on the speed of cashiers who could either reference the item number or recall the price from memory. With the emergence of barcodes however it greatly increased the speed of checking out and reduced time needing to re-label sticker prices.
References:
- History.com Editors. “Morse Code & the Telegraph.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/topics/inventions/telegraph.
- “Morse Code.” Morse Code – New World Encyclopedia, www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Morse_Code.
Resources:
- Morse Code Activity: www.learnmorsecode.com
- vsauce/D!NG In-Depth Morse Code Analysis: https://youtu.be/HY_OIwideLg