TODAY marks the 50th anniversary of the first usage in public of an Automated Teller Machine (ATM), otherwise known as a cash machine or the hole-in-the-wall.
The first ever public withdrawal was made by the television comedy actor Reg Varney – then nearing the height of his fame as the star of Beggar My Neighbour, with On The Buses still to come.
The Barclaycash ATM was initiated by Varney on June 27, 1967 at the bank’s branch in Enfield Town, where the actor lived.
WHY SHOULD SCOTS CARE ABOUT THIS ANNIVERSARY?
THERE should really be big celebrations in Scotland today, because the first ATM was developed by a Scot, John Shepherd-Barron OBE, who had the idea while sitting in the bath wondering how he could get his cash from the local bank when it was shut. He thought of chocolate bar vending machines and made the leap of logic that cash could be dispensed in much the same way – a huge advance in the days when people had to queue up in their local branch to withdraw money.
With cheques and postal orders widely used, what really made the ATM such a hit was that employers were more and more insistent on paying wages into bank accounts for security reasons.
It helped that Shepherd-Barron, whose family were from Inverness but who was born in Shillong in India, was then the managing director of De La Rue Instruments, the company long associated with banknote printing. The De La Rue Automated Cash System (DACS) was the world’s first automated banknote dispenser, but only by a few days as other banks and other systems were coming into the race.
It was Shepperd-Barron, a wartime paratrooper, who persuaded Barclays to jump on his system first and that’s why he is widely credited with the invention.
He died in Raigmore Hospital in Inverness in May, 2010, aged 84.
BUT WASN’T THERE ANOTHER SCOT WHO CLAIMED THE INVENTION?
JAMES Goodfellow, who was born in Paisley in 1937 and is still with us, is the man officially credited with the invention of the ATM, as he filed the world’s first patent for the machine on May 2, 1966, while he was working for Chubb Integrated Systems Ltd, the safe and lock experts. At the same time he patented the Personal Identification Number (PIN) system.
His patent in the USA described exactly how the machine worked: “A money-dispensing system dispenses a pack of money upon request by an authorised bank-customer, the request involving presentation to a card reader of the customer’s individually-allotted punched card and operation of asset of ten push buttons in accordance with the customer’s personal identification number.”
That basic paragraph described ATMs and the way they operate even now.
Having filed the first patent, Goodfellow is now seen as the inventor, even if Shepherd-Barron’s system was in use first.
Goodfellow went on to have a distinguished career in science and invention, most notably with IBM. He was awarded the OBE, holds a honorary doctorate from the University of the West of Scotland and was inducted last year into the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame.
THEY CHANGED THE WORLD OF BANKING, DIDN’T THEY?
AS with so many inventions in the modern era, crediting one or two people alone isn’t enough to explain the development of what became a genuine phenomenon and paved the way for today’s digital banking.
It took a huge effort in many countries to develop the modern ATM system that means people can go virtually anywhere in the developed world and be assured of a supply of cash – as long as they have some in their account, of course. It was a genuine boon for Scottish industry, too. Dundee was chosen to be the home for ATM production by US company National Cash Register (now known simply as NCR). ATMs have since been shipped from Dundee and other NCR locations to financial institutions all across the world, though nowadays the company focuses on research and development rather than production in Dundee.
Cash is still king, and the world’s three million ATMs have ensured that. There are estimated to be around 360 billion banknotes in circulation globally, and the technology can play a vital part in maintaining a society when trouble hits the money supply. When banks in Cyprus were shut down for two weeks in 2015, ATMs were kept in operation and regularly refilled.
The banks have tried to extend card payment systems, but with surveys showing the majority of people still prefer cash to do their shopping, ATMs will have a place in banking for years to come.
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