The invention story of ATM, your go-to option for instant cash  

In today’s world, it is impossible to imagine a life without debit cards, right? After all, they allow you to draw cash instantly (minus the cues of bank cash counters), almost in any part of the world if it has an ATM booth. So, what exactly is this ATM? Well, it’s an acronym of Automated Teller Machine and refers to a device that helps deposit or collect cash as and when necessary. Ever wondered who you should thank for such an important invention? Well, that’s a going to be quite a few masterminds. Read on to know more. 

Modern ATM’s predecessor was a flop! 
Yes, you read that right! The first ever ATM-like device was invented in the 1940s by an Armenian-American inventor named Luther George Simjian. Do you know what he called his device? A “hole-in-the-wall machine!” But the strange part about his invention was that unlike today’s ATM that can accept and dispense cash, his device could only function as an automated deposit machine (more like an ADM). The device could accept coins, cash and even cheques! However, it took almost two decades for Simjian to earn patents (20 to be exact) for his ATM-like invention. Thereafter, he field-tested it as “Bankograph” in collaboration with New York’s City Bank. But reports suggest that there was very little demand for it, which is why, it was discontinued after only six months.  

London welcomes the world’s first functional ATM 
Following Simjian’s failed invention to help out-of-hours cash distribution in Japan, a device was made by the Japanese in 1966. Known as the Computer Loan Machine, it dispensed cash as a three-month loan at a rate of five per cent per annum, simply through a card. However, it never left the country!  

Sources also cite that the patents of modern ATM were held by the Scottish inventor James Goodfellow in 1966, while the first free-standing ATM was designed by US inventor John D. White, who also had a patent for the same. However, it was only in 1967 that the first ever public-use ATM was created and installed in a Barclays Bank in Enfield, North London. It was the brainchild of none other than the famous English printer/ inventor John Shepherd Barron from London’s reputed printing firm De La Rue. That’s why this ATM machine was called De La Rue Automatic Cash System (DACS). 

Interestingly, during that time, today’s plastic ATM cards didn’t exist. Okay, so how did DACS work back then? Well, people used cheques imprinted with carbon 14 (a mild radioactive substance). The machine was designed to detect the unique carbon 14 mark and match it against the PIN (personal identification number) of the bank’s customer. The then popular comedy actor Reg Varney was the first person to use the machine.  

Fun fact: While John Shepherd Barron gifted the world the first official ATM machine, it was his wife Caroline who came up with the idea of PIN. He suggested John to change it from the previously thought six-digit to four, as it would be easier to remember.  

Meet the world’s first ATM counter 
When the world got to know about Barron’s ground-breaking invention, he was invited at the Miami bank conference in 1967 where he talked all about his work. Inspired by him, an American named Don Wetzel ordered six DACS for the USA, all of which were placed at Pennsylvania Bank in Philadelphia. Meanwhile, Wetzel kept modifying the prototype and by the following year, he thought of something else, yet related. He realised that ATMs needed to be installed outside of banks to meet the after-hours demands. When he pitched this idea to his bosses at Product Planning Docutel (which specialised in developing automated baggage-handling equipment), it was quickly conceptualised into what we know as ATM booth or ATM counter today. Wetzel, along with the firm’s chief mechanical engineer Tom Barnes and electrical engineer George Chastain developed the first ever functioning ATM counter in 1969, the patent of which was received in 1973. As soon as the first outside-of-bank ATM was opened in Rockville Centre in New York by the city, the modern-day money-giving device entered the mainstream economy. And the rest, as they say, is history.  

Bonus fact: It was Wetzel, Barnes and Chastain who jointly developed the first ever ATM card using magnetic strip and PIN to generate cash.