Ask Mike: Who invented the ATM?
Hey Guys,
It wasn’t so long ago that people had to go inside the bank in order to withdraw money. And if the bank wasn’t open, which was often the case, you were up a creek without a twenty. Of course, ATMs changed all that. I stumbled upon an old question on Yahoo! Answers that sought information on the inventor of the cash machine. Here’s what I learned…
I suspected the ATM was created during the ’80s, but according to an article from the BBC, the modern ATM was actually invented back in the ’60s by a Briton named John Shepherd-Barron. Mr. Shepherd-Barron was apparently inspired while taking a bath. “It struck me there must be a way I could get my own money, anywhere in the world or the UK. I hit upon the idea of a chocolate bar dispenser, but replacing chocolate with cash.”
The machine predated plastic cards, so in order to withdraw cash, customers had to use checks “that were impregnated with carbon 14.” The maximum withdrawal was a modest £10, and the first ATMs had their share of problems. Still the banks took to them right away. Eventually so did their customers.
The BBC goes on to note that the first ATM was also responsible for another invention that we all use about 100 times every day: the four digit PIN. Mr. Shepherd-Barron’s wife convinced him that most people could only remember a four digit number, so that became the industry standard (he originally wanted a six-digit PIN).
ATM Marketplace hosts a copy of a speech Mr. Shepherd-Barron gave, in which he describes the process of inventing the cash dispenser. You can also listen to an NPR interview with the famed inventor here.
Today, there are about 1.6 million ATMs worldwide. But it all started with a guy who simply wanted to access his cash as easily as he could a chocolate bar. Pretty cool, huh?
Thanks for reading,
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I remember when we got the first one in my hometown of Middleton WI. I’m sure many others remember when an ATM was SO special that they made special little glass buildings for them.
Anyway, one popular name for these were “TYME” machines, which stands for “Take Your Money Everywhere”!
Looks like it was a “Wisconsin” thing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyme
Why is Your Translator Wrong? I Tested Your French To English Translator And Oh My God It Didn’t come Back Right. Think You Need To Make Sure These Are Correct Before Translating Languages On The Internet
wow who knew.I figured the 70′s 80′s. but obviously there weren’t too many around america at first
I heard that Don Meridith had something to do with the development of the ATM, or something. Don Meredith was the legendary Dallas Cowboys broadcaster.
What came between going into the bank and the ATM?
Around the late ’70s in the UK, they came out with a new modern type of banking. You walked up to a screen and keypad outside the bank (almost like an ATM), but the screen was a live video of a bank teller. You put your card in a slot, talked to the teller and she did your banking. Almost like a US drive thru teller, but it was a walk-through.
This was revolutionary, really!!
Next came the ATM proper.
LOL I remember Tyme Machines.
When they first started putting banks and ATMs in grocery stores, my dad told me about how his dad had predicted that one day groceries would be so expensive that they would need a bank right in the store.
Now we can’t even imagine living without them. Kinda makes you wonder what future “necessity” they will come up with in the next 10-20 years that people will wonder how we are currently getting along fine without.
wow its one of those things i never thought about before to me they have just always ‘been there’
my 1 piece of useless info learned for the day im gonna tell people now and bore them all day lol
Who does ATMmachine.com think was the inventor?
Who invented the idea of an ATM? We believe it was Luther George Simjian. Who invented the ATM as we know it? We have to think it was James Goodfellow in Scotland for holding a patent date of 1966. Who invented the free standing ATM design we recognize today? We think it was John D. White for Docutel in the US.
We would like to say that the Smithsonian Institute Museum may need to take a closer look at who they claim the inventor of the ATM is. We do not believe they had all the facts available to them when they made their choice. They still may choose to say Don Wetzel, but until presented with the evidence we were given, that decision may have been premature. And with all due respect to the Queen of England, she needs to include James Goodfellow of Scotland when speaking of “services to banking,” and giving credit to the inventor of the ATM in the United Kingdom.
The story seems to be ever changing and we will update this page whenever we get new information.
I saw my first ATM in 1978. (Morgantown) It did use a magnetic card. It was kind a of a “Get Smart” affair, The entire face of the machine was covered by a 1/4 inch steel plate, The only thing exposed was a slot for your card. After you inserted a valid card, the plate retracted upward, exposing the machine which was not all that different from today. When you transaction was complete, the steel plate came back down to cover and protect the ATM. Within a year, ATM’s’ were everywhere – but the first machine was the only one I ever saw with the retractable plate and before too long it was replaced with a different unit, without the plate.
The very first ATM was in the late sixties in Birmingham England I believe. It worked off a cardboard card with a magnetic strip on it…The machine itself worked like candy bar machine…(remember the ones you had to pull the handle to get your candy bar)…
Duh…All that info you already knew…teaches me to post without reading the whole message…LOL
first ATM was at a Barclays bank in the UK ….. not the states.
Actaully, ATM stands for automatic tailer machine which poeple can get their money without goig to the bank. It makes our life easy, but makes the crime as well.
a year ago, my money was stolen by a stranger who was looking at me when I was taking my money out. It was so bad that he got all my money and went away. I reported this to the police but no success.
I hope that the technology always comes with bad sides, so we should be careful.
I remember having a cash machine outside my local bank in the mid ’70′s.
I had a card for a while, but destroyed it when I came to the conclusion that its sole purpose was to get in more trouble at 3am.
I started to use ATMs in the early 70′s in New Jersey. One thing I remember about those early machines is that they did not dipsense individual bills like they do now. The machine dispensed an envelope containing $25 or $50, which was pre-loaded with the amount you selected. I was so used to that machine (which connected to my bank only) that I was actually surprised the first time I saw an ATM that you could select the exact amount you want.
I know that Reg Varney, famous for On The Buses was the first ever person to use one officially at a bank.
The first ATM was in a little town called Wilton in Salisbury United Kingdom. I work with the banking ombudsman.
I don’t know the inventor, but it was around 1984 that ATMs first came to the Chicago area. A service called Cash Station, with no links via Star or Cirrus or the modern services, started popping up with massive PR and advertising. There were fees of $1.50 on every machine that was not your own bank’s home branch (there might have been fees on that, too, briefly). I’d guess that the research and technological development went back some years before that, possibly to the electronic revolution of the late 1970′s.
oh goodness just thinking about where we will be in ten years!
Maybe by then we’ll be able to take snap shots of any event, and stick it to a desktop, or refrigerator. In order for someone to enjoy the photo all they have to do it touch it at the bottom, and WHALA! Something microscopic from our fingertips will set the photo in motion exhibiting at least seven minutes up to the snapped event taken, and five minutes after the snapped event taken. Twelve whole minutes of a little production that you can carry in your wallet, wear on your t-shirt, or stick on your dashboard. Kooooky I know, but we’re walking on the moon to aint we?
Oh yeah, as far as the ATM’s go, things will be fixed so that everybody’s income for living will set by the government. As you live out your life, buying, sealing and so forth, it will simply be deducted out of that yearly set amount of money stamped over your life for that time. When you attempt to go over the amount, a government friendly shock will find you where ever you are and you’ll just have to make do with whatever you have. The old fashion model will return: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or DO WITHOUT!”
That’s my take on things {smiling}
In NYC, Citibank was the first, and for a while, the only bank to have ATMs. I know for a fact that I had an account in 1979 and used an ATM, because Citibank was around the block from a job I had only in that year. It was very difficult to get used to the idea of not having a bankbook and only using a card, but I loved it from the beginning.
I INVENTED IT!
Only 1.6 million? That seems rather low… I live in a small city, but I could guess we have at least 2-300 ATM’s across town. There’s one inside or outside most banks, most convenience stores have them, there there are the bars, restaurant’s, the ones inside tiny booths and a few fast food places are installing them here. But we’re much smaller than say Chicago or New York. They must have thousands across the city. If you add up all the ones in America alone, you could easily reach several more million than 1.6.
You should consider that not all the ATM’s are associated with a specific bank, some are privately owned. Within my city, there are perhaps, 2 or 3 ATM’s that are completely free to use, no added charges.
When the 1.6 number was calculated, were only the bank ATM’s counted?
I understand that the machine uses a light to count the money. It knows how thick a certain amount of money is.
I’m old enough to remember the days of having to go inside the bank, stand in line, and wait while someone else decided if I could have access to my own money.
It was the early 80′s when I stopped having to do that. (It was shortly thereafter that I stopped needing cheques, with the advent of telephone, and then Internet, banking. I do still have a whole box of cheques from either the late 80′s or early 90′s…meaning…these are my cheques. If I were to write a cheque today, these are the cheques I would use. They have my old, old, old address on them, which, on the rare occasions I use a cheque, I have to scratch out and initial. Same goes for the date, though, since I have to write over the ’19′ and insert a 21st century date.)
I remember moving from Toronto to California around that time, and just could not believe how scarce ATM’s were there. (The jokey comparison between Canada and the U.S. is, ‘In the U.S. there’s a liquor store on every corner. In Canada, there’s a bank on every corner.’ …And that’s pretty true for Canadian cities.) I had my ATM card in my hot little hand, ready to use it, yet I had to travel far and wide to find a machine.
When I lived in Chicago in the middle 90′s, people were STILL lining up in banks. When my (then) boyfriend was at the bank regularly, and had to give employees time off work “to go to the bank”, I had to find out what that was all about, since it’d been at least a decade since that was the norm at home. It seems it was a combination of factors ranging from limited ATM access, to not having bank accounts and/or telephone banking. He would regularly have to cash pay ‘checks’ for some of his employees…if you can believe it! …In the 90′s!!
Recently, I was purchasing some Mastercard gift cards from a young woman. Somehow the topic of ATM’s came up, and I explained the bit about it only being about 25 years ago, or so, when you couldn’t just run to a bank machine and get cash. After saying that, though, I realized the “girl” was maybe 18-years-old herself, and thus has no idea of the “hardships” we used to face. You can only explain the annoyance of standing in line at a bank, standing there while a teller looks over all your assets, “bankers’ hours”, or getting caught without cash “after hours”. You’d have had to live it to really understand what that’s like.
I don’t think ATM’s will go far in the future, everything will be centralized so we will never see the money very soon, I do not go to an ATM almost ever, I had to go last month after I moved for something, then realized haven been in one over a year, last time before that was to deposit a check. I do all transactions and payments online.. that is the future.
When I graduated college in 1984, I went to work as a Senior Computer Operator for a company called NTS (National Transaction Systems). They had one of the first multi-bank use ATM networks in Calif. They had ATMs in Safeways and 7-Elevens all over Calif. and Wash. St. There was an 800 # on the machines to call if you had problems using the machine. Boy do I have some funny stories about some of the calls I received from customers wanting money. We also had to make calls to the stores occassionally to have them check on the machines. Got some funny stories about calls made as well.
After our financial backer pulled funding, GTE bought the companies assets. Four months later, I was 1 of 4 out of the original 50 NTS employees who was hired back. The machines were then renamed G-tellers. There were two brands of ATMs that we had…Diebold and Fujitsu. I got to train under and work with the same guy who designed the Honor system in Florida. It was a great job! Boy does this bring back the memories. If any of my old NTS or GTE coworkers are reading this, FACEBOOK me.
Easier access to money means a way to get broke faster.
what is ATM?
BBC is wrong. America had ATM’s before the first one was installed in England. They were manufactured and patented by several different U.S. companies and individuals. Unfortunately, some people in the U.K. have a bad habit of saying they invented things first (such as electronic television, which is a U.S. invention). I don’t understand why.
“ROBOT BANK TELLER IS INTRODUCED HERE; Machine Accepts Only Checks”
New York Times – Dec 22, 1937
In 1939, Simjian (New York City) invented the Bankomatic, an automatic coin changer.
Riverside Trust Adopts Robot Teller
Hartford Courant – May 12, 1947
“Bank Testing Fast Server of Currency”
Chicago Tribune – Apr 25, 1951
Over 5 years before English bank:
[Ohio] “Bank to get 24 hour teller” “A new automatic teller machine will soon be installed at the office of the West Unity Citizens National Bank”
The Bryan Times [ Ohio ]- May 26, 1961
I believe ATM and the plastic cards are the main cause of the global economic crisis. Lack of education on the part of general public, on financial management and greed and unethical practices on the part of some of our financial institutions seem to me to be the root cause of the global economic crisis.
I have seen some banks charging $ 70.for each incidence of Not Sufficient Funds. Witch can be two or the times a day. While the banks are advertising that your checking account is free. What a jole
Even though they didn’t invent the ATM, a company called DOCUTEL was the first American company to design their own model and to market it. Billy Jack Meredith, Don Meredith’s brother, was the ramrod and one helluva marketing type. Docutel dominated the market for a long time, but then failed to advance the technology and went under.
I was a Field Service Technician with Docutel for 10 years.
How I can stop my worry?
Although the ATM was invented in Britain, the South Africans developed it to allow a customer to draw from his account at any ATM in the world. Infact the South African banking system was the first to be 2YK compliant.
My bank got ATMs in 1981. The innovation was staggering. I remember the date specifically because I remember that in 1980 I tried to buy a pair of shoes for a new job with a check at Target, on Sunday. No soap. Incredibly, you needed a credit card in order to pay for anything with a check at that time! This was so because they needed two forms of ID — your driver’s license, and a major credit card. WTF! If I had the magic card of cards, why would I have written a check for eighteen dollars?
I remember pitifully pulling out my bank book and trying to show a manager or anyone at that Target that I had several hundred dollars in the bank, just deposited two days before, and thus, any $18 check I might write would be good. Still no soap.
Fairly quickly after that, payment options got real, and before long, you could get a check cashed with just a drivers license, and use your ATM card just like a credit card. People who’ve had the flexibility of ATMs and debit cards all their lives have no idea how huge they are. To this day, I don’t take them for granted.
Your info is way wrong. Luther George SimJian invented the very first ATM in 1939 and it was installed at City Bank of New York in New York. De La Rue developed the first fully electronic version in 1967 and it was installed a Barclays bank in Einfield Town, UK. In 1968 Donald Wetzel and a company named DOCUTEL invented the first networked ATM at the company’s headquarters in Dallas, TX. I’m so old I actually worked on the first Docutel models.
worked for co, that installed atms for all banks an stores,for 6 years,,you would recall being short a time or two,,early on..telling bank,of short change,,most i recovered from one drive up was 640.00 from one machine preston an coit dallas, when surround removed for r+r….the new surround service bars ,on concealed ,units still trap bills,,count it,,,
hey thank u ………………..
Thanks for this informative post
cool. happy to see your interest in ATM. it was my grandfather who invented ATM.
Does it really matter when or where the first atm machine was? To some of you, yes. But what matters now is that we have them and they are a tremendous help to banks that can’t stay open 24/7.
THE VERY FIRST ATM MACHINE WAS IN YORK, ENGLAND-1981. THIS DATA IS FACTUAL. MY FAMILY DESIGNED THE FIRST PAPER MONEY TRANSACTION MACHINE. WE STILL HOLD THE PATENT TO THIS MACHINE.