Forty years ago Thursday, the purchase of a 67-cent (U.S.) package of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio, received what may have seemed like an undue amount of attention. With ...

George Laurer had no idea his design would reach well beyond retail outlets when he created the black line and number sets known as the modern bar code while working for IBM as an engineer. Forty ...