Nowadays, we tend to take barcodes and the infrastructure surrounding them (printers, scanners, POS systems, software, etc.) for granted.
Back in the 1970s and into the 1980s, the industry was just getting started, led by some outstanding companies and the individuals behind them.
Many of these companies have disappeared over the years, such as Symbol Technologies, Computer Identics and Handheld Products, being absorbed into larger organizations and losing their identity.
Another pioneer of barcoding was Interface Mechanisms (later Intermec). At one time, Intermec was the best-known company in the new Auto ID business and had a great team of innovative engineers, including David Allais, who went on to become Intermecโs President.
Dr. Allais wrote a memoir of his time at Intermec (and afterward), which can be found online at the Stony Brook University site.
This is a fantastic read for anyone interested in the beginnings and development of barcodes and Auto ID. The University also has a collection of Dr. Allais’ works he donated over the years, but I don’t believe this is available online.
Another excellent Intermec resource is Accurate Dataโs site. Iโm not sure if this company is still operatingโlet me know if you have any informationโbut its site has a library of scans of Intermec datasheets from the original impact printers of the 1980s โ one of which was the very first printer for labels with linear barcodes.
This impact printer was initially sold to UK company Plessey and was intended to print a barcode that Plessey had developed for use in labeling books.
Versions of the impact printer were later developed to print other symbologies such as UPC/EAN, Code 39 and more.
Intermec was also a leader in developing barcode scanners – from wand type to laser scanners and later to imaging scanners and mobile computers.
As well as designing barcode equipment, two of the barcodes in common use today, Interleaved 2 of 5 (ITF) and Code 39 are the result of the efforts of Intermec and David Allais (Raymond Stevens shares the credit for Code 39).
The ITF barcode is used on just about every shipping case or tray in the retail supply chain (some types of products use GS1 barcodes), and Code 39 is still used for the traceability of industrial products.
A company I worked for used these Intermec impact printers on weigh-price labeling systems. Until thermal printing became available, these noisy impact printers were the only way to print variable EAN codes onto retail food package labels.
This is probably the best place for info on these older Intermec products. Check it out here: Accurate Data Intermec Museum.
As well as personally developing several barcode symbologies, such as the Interleaved 2 of 5 (ITF) barcode, which is to be bound on almost every shipping case or tray today, David Allais has continued to be active in barcode innovation.
I had the pleasure of meeting him a few years ago at a GS1 workgroup meeting at the Auto-ID Lab at the University of Memphis.
David Allais and his colleagues at Intermec played a massive role in shaping our modern barcode world. Sadly, the famous Intermec brand has been allowed to fade away.
