Luther George SimjianIn the late 1930's, Luther George Simjian
started building an earlier and not-so-successful version of an
ATM. He did register related patents. He initially came up with the
idea of creating a "hole-in-the-wall machine." It would allow
customers to make financial transactions, without entering the
bank. The idea wasmetwith a greatdealof doubt. Starting in 1939,
Simjian registered 20 patents related to the device and persuaded
what is now Citicorp to give it a trial. After six months, the bank
reported that there was little demand. Today, as you know, there is
a huge demand!John Shepherd-BarronJohn Shepherd-Barron had an idea
in the 1960's for a 24/7 cash dispenser. He was managing director
of De La RueInstruments. De La Rue today manufactures cash
dispensers. There is a De La Rue cash dispenser in 1 out of every 5
ATM machines built. If you want to say that Shepherd-Barron
invented the ATM, then the world's first ATM was installed
outsideNorthLondon. It was installed in a branch of Barclays Bank
in 1967. Later that year, Shepherd-Barron presented his idea to a
conference. The conference consisted of 2,000 US bankers in Miami,
this was after the first ATMs had been installed in England. He
spoke to the conference about the new self-servicebanking device he
developed. On December 31, 2004, John Shepherd-Barron, was named an
OBE, Officer of the Order of the British Empire by the Queen. It
was for "services to banking." Shepherd Barron said: "It was a bit
late, but better late than never." Press releases stated that
Shepherd-Barron was the "Inventor of the ATM." But, was he really
the inventor?Sadly, John Shepherd-Barron passed away, in May of
2010, in Scotland.James GoodfellowAs a Development engineer with
Smiths Industries Ltd, James Goodfellow was given a project. It was
to develop an automatic cash dispenser in 1965. Chubb Lock &
Safe Co. were to provide the secure physical housing. They were
also to develop a mechanical dispenser mechanism. Mr. Goodfellow
designed the new system. It consisted of a machine readable
encryptedcard, and the machine that read it. To this he added a
numerical keypad. UK Patent No.1,197,183 with a priority date of
May 2 1966, covers this invention. It is also covered by US Patent
No.3,905,461 and Patents granted by many other countries. These
Patents list James Goodfellow as inventor, along with the late
A.I.O.Davies, the company General Manager. This US Patent still
describes the basic ATM function almost 40 years later. These
Machines were marketed by Chubb LTD. They were installed nationwide
in the UK during the late 60s and early 70s. You can read "Who
Invented the ATM? Part 2 here:ATM inventor James Goodfellow's story
on ATMmachine.com. "Thanks goes out to Mr. Goodfellow for giving us
his permission.(Update: In 2006, James Goodfellow was selected by
the Queen to be awarded an OBE for his services. He was awarded
this as patentee of the Personal Identification Number (PIN), and
for his service to banking.Don WetzelIn 1968, according to a NMAH
interview, Don Wetzel, says he was the Vice President of Product
Planning at Docutel. The company that developed automated
baggage-handling equipment. He applied for a patent on an ATM
machine. He said there were two other inventors listed on the
patent. They were Tom Barnes, a mechanical engineer. George
Chastain, an electrical engineer. It took five million dollars to
develop their ATM according to Mr. Wetzel. If you want say that
Wetzel and company invented the ATM, then you might want to read
the next paragraph.John D. WhiteJohn D. White told ATMmachine.com
that his work started in 1968. He told us that he installed the
first ATM at Rockville Center, LI for the then Chemical Bank in
August 1973. His design was patented on May 9, 1973 the machine was
a "Credit Card Automatic Currency Dispenser" . Mr. White provided
copies of his patent to ATMmachine.com. We reviewed them. It does
indeed state that the inventor of the machine was John D. White and
Kenneth Goldstein. The assignee on the patent was the Docutel
Corporation. This is very convincing evidence. It appears that it
was White and not Wetzel who received the patent. There is also a
statement in the patent that supports the idea of the modern
ATM."Both the original code and the updated code are scrambled in
accordance with a changing key", which is what happens today. ATM's
are programmed with security keys and the code changes. Today they
must be 3DES certified. It is encrypted ( scrambled) to prevent
fraudulent access to credit card and ATM debit numbers. This occurs
between the machine, the bank, and the network processor. In the
form of data transmissions. We would like to thank Mr. White for
contacting us. And for sharing all of the documentation. The patent
drawings he gave us look very much like the free standing ATM that
is sold on ATMmachine.com today.In the late 1930's, Luther George
Simjian started building an earlier and not-so-successful version
of an ATM. He did register related patents. He initially came up
with the idea of creating a "hole-in-the-wall machine." It would
allow customers to make financial transactions, without entering
the bank. The idea wasmetwith a greatdealof doubt. Starting in
1939, Simjian registered 20 patents related to the device and
persuaded what is now Citicorp to give it a trial. After six
months, the bank reported that there was little demand.John
Shepherd-Barron had an idea in the 1960's for a 24/7 cash
dispenser. He was managing director of De La RueInstruments. De La
Rue today manufactures cash dispensers. There is a De La Rue cash
dispenser in 1 out of every 5 ATM machines built. James Goodfellow,
a Development engineer with Smiths Industries Ltd was given a
project in 1965. Chubb Lock & Safe Co was to provide the secure
physical housing. UK Patent No.1,197,183, dated May 2nd 1966,
covers this invention. It is also covered by US Patent No.3,905,461
and Patents granted by many other countries, John D. White and
Jairus Larson are the others who made a contributions for todays
ATM
Jairus Larson told ATMmachine.com he did not invent the ATM.
But, as far as he is aware, he developed the first 'on-line' ATM.
This would be Diebold's "550". The first ATM's were all 'off-line'
versions (referred to in the past as 'stand-alone'). Meaning they
did not have any means to communicate with the bank network.
Today's ATMs are "on-line". On-line in the sense that they
communicate with the bank's computer system. Mr. Larson was kind
enough to give us his account of how this happened in the early
1970's
