Supermarket Scanner
date: label: date made
content: 1974
name: label: maker
content: Spectra-Physics Scanning Systems, Inc.
notes: label: Description
content: On 26 June 1974, the first installation of supermarket scanners entered service in a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio. This Spectra Physics model A price scanner, is one of those first ten scanners. A package of Wrigley's chewing gum became the first purchase made with scanners that could read the new Uniform Product Code (UPC or barcode). Mounted within the unit a helium-neon laser projected a beam onto a rotating mirror and thence up through a glass plate on the top surface. The light reflected from the code label on the package and was detected by a photo-diode. A computerized cash register matched the signal from the photo-diode with information in a stored database to determine which product was being scanned.
label: Description
content: Spectra Physics and NCR jointly developed the system, and provided the laser scanner and the computerized cash register, respectively. A group called the "Ad Hoc Committee of the Grocery Industry" developed the barcode itself. Organized in 1970 by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., the Ad Hoc Committee consisted of senior executives of leading firms in the grocery industry. The coding system they devised had an enormous impact on a wide range of applications, most notably for retail sales and inventory control.
label: Description
content: The scanned package of chewing gum remained with Clyde Dawson of Marsh Supermarkets and never came to the Smithsonian. (Thanks to Priscilla Dygert for confirming the recollection of museum staff. See comment below.)
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: used
content: United States: Ohio
topic: label: Subject
content: Laser
label: Subject
content: Business
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
label: See more items in
content: Energy & Power
label: See more items in
content: Lasers
label: See more items in
content: Cash and Credit Registers
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Alan Q. Morton. Packaging History: The Emergence of the Uniform Product Code (UPC) in the United States, 1970-75
label: Related Publication
content: Marsh Supermarket material
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Spectra Physics Scanning Systems Incorporated
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1994.0180.01
label: accession number
content: 1994.0180
label: catalog number
content: 1994.0180.01
label: serial number
content: 006
objectType: label: Object Name
content: scanner
label: Object Name
content: laser scanner
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: glass (window material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: aluminum (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: copper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: rubber (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 30 in x 18 in x 12 in; 76.2 cm x 45.72 cm x 30.48 cm