Tales In Tech History: The ATM

Goodfellow told the BBC that the main development hurdle of the ATM was how to authenticate the customer, in order to give them cash. The team apparently considered biometrics (fingerprints, voice prints or retinal scans), but the technology in the 1960s was simply not there.

Goodfellow explained that his next approach was an “exotic token”, namely a piece of paper or plastic with “uncommon characteristics” that a machine would recognise.

He then came up with the idea of coupling this with the Personal Identification Number (PIN).

This meant the unique plastic card and PIN would only be known by the customer and the bank, and thus cash could be safely dispensed.

Goodfellow did not get rich from his design unfortunately, as he was just a humble technician and didn’t own the rights. That said, he did sign patents for 15 countries and got a dollar for each – worth about £10.

Goodfellow left the firm in 1967 and he apparently went to work for IBM.

Other ATM Systems

Other countries had also developed their own ATM systems in the 1960s, including a system in Japan (of which little is known), and another in Sweden (which arrived just nine days after the UK’s first DACS machine arrived in Enfield).

The United States meanwhile for its part claims to invented the first ATM after Luther George Simjian patented his Bankograph system in 1960 (granted in 1963). However, rollout of that Bankograph system was delayed for a number of years and it was not a cash dispensing machine, but rather it accepted cash deposits in envelopes.

The first Bankograph system was installed in in 1961 by the City Bank of New York, but was removed after six months due to the lack of customer acceptance.

The American’s dalliance with the ATM was therefore over until in 1968 when the country began to examine the arrival and customer acceptance of ATMs across the pond (in the UK and Sweden).

A man called Donald Wetzel, who was a department head at a company called Docutel, decided to pioneer the ATM in the US, and the first Docutel ATM was installed in New York in September 1969 at Chemical Bank.

Wetzel may be able to claim credit as the inventor of the networked ATM, but in reality it was the British who invented the core ATM system we all use today.

According to the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA), there are now an estimated 3 million cash machines across the globe – 70,000 of which are in the UK.