Q 01/05

Which two men are credited with inventing the barcode, patented in the US in 1952?

A) Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver

B) George Laurer and David Collins

C) Masahiro Hara and Ray Stevens

D) Herman Hollerith and Charles Walton

Answer · why

A) Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver

Their idea was Morse code extended into thin and thick bars; it took more than twenty years to become a commercial success.

Q 02/05

Where was Bernard Silver a graduate student when he overheard a grocery executive asking for automatic checkout?

A) University of Pennsylvania

B) Temple University

C) Villanova University

D) Drexel Institute of Technology

Answer · why

D) Drexel Institute of Technology

Drexel Institute of Technology is where a grocery executive begged a dean for help in 1948; the dean refused, so Silver took the problem to his friend...

Q 03/05

What was wrong with Woodland and Silver's ultraviolet ink system?

A) It worked only in darkness

B) The ink faded too easily and was expensive

C) It needed a mainframe computer

D) The photocell couldn't see the ink

Answer · why

B) The ink faded too easily and was expensive

The ink faded too easily and was expensive, but Woodland was sure the idea could work, so he quit Drexel and moved to his grandfather's Florida apartm...

Q 04/05

Woodland formed his first barcode by drawing in what?

A) Sand on a beach

B) Frost on a window

C) Chalk on a sidewalk

D) Flour on a kitchen table

Answer · why

A) Sand on a beach

Woodland drew the first barcode in sand on a beach in Miami: he extended Morse code dots and dashes downward into narrow and wide lines.

Q 05/05

To read his striped code, what existing technology did Woodland adapt?

A) Radar screens

B) Movie soundtracks

C) Player pianos

D) Television cameras

Answer · why

B) Movie soundtracks

Movie soundtracks were played by shining light through a patterned strip onto a sensitive tube, so Woodland's reader paired a 500-watt bulb with a tub...