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03.04
1860 - Create a "Pony Express". Lovely idea itself - to make the transcontinental postal service - faced with the harsh reality, held for long. From St. Joseph Missouri to Sacramento, it was about three thousand one hundred kilometers of cross-country, which had to be overcome in 10 days. Mail delivery was more like a quest. In service with the couriers were two Colt and a hunting knife. Postal priatachivalsya to load saddlebags and lock, the keys to the locks at the stations were at the beginning and end of the route. Changing horses was approximately every 10 miles at the stations, where carriers are not particularly delayed - 2 minutes on the transfer of bags on a fresh horse - and forward. Paid guys for such entertainment $ 100 per month (about 2500 if the result in the current equivalent), the shipping cost was $ 10 / ounce (31 grams). Expensive to say the least. But even this is not derailed, "Pony Express". Constant attacks on couriers, plus the development of new means of communication (telegraph, in particular) have led to the fact that one and a half year, the company ceased to exist ...
1973 - The official birth of the barcode. IBM introduced its new development, parents - Bernard Silver and Norman Joseph Woodland. It is now hard to imagine the packaged goods without this, and in fact was, it was ... The horror of those shovels queues, not least because of the lack of the usual stuff today.
Incidentally, the first round were codes to reduce possibility of error in reading. However, testing in one of the shows in Cincinnati Magazov obratnyyy result - if the wheels slid slightly during printing, scanner, refused to read the "seen." As a result of the proposed IBM UPC-code it was more successful and was admitted to the performance. Designed it all the same Norman Woodland and IBM Fellow George Laurer.
EAN-13 bar code is today used more often recorded with strips of different thickness and with the help of 13 digits. It is applied for 80% of global production
