Strange but true: How lines drawn in the sand at a Florida beach became the bar code

This New York Times report on the life of N. Joseph Woodland, inventor of the bar code dies, who died recently at age 91, offers a fascinating tale of the birth of the bar code. The inventor, who only made $15,000 for conceptualizing the bar code, came up with the idea because of his interest in Morse Code and a drawing he made of a series of wide-and-thin lines on a Florida beach.