Google Honors Anniversary of Bar Code Patent Awarded to Drexel Alumnus, Faculty Member

On Wednesday, October 8, 2009, Google celebrated the 57th anniversary of the first bar code patent by changing the logo on its Web site with a black and white bar code design.

Drexel alumnus Norman Woodland (above) CoE '47, Hon. '98, and faculty member Bernard Silver received the first patent (U.S. Patent # 2,612,994) for their bar code on October 7, 1952. The bar code created by Woodland and Silver was comprised of a series of concentric circles, not the black and white vertical lines used currently.