Money Machine Turns 40
Goldman Sachs. Lehman Brothers. Morgan Stanley.
They are cash machines. But they are not the cash machine. Today is the big FOUR ZERO for the ATM.
On June 26th, 1967 the first automated teller machine was installed in a Barclay’s branch in north London. Of course, it was far from perfect. Plastic cards were not in use, so the ATM used checks imprinted with carbon 14, a radioactive substance.
And you could only take out 10 pounds out at a time. Of course, back in those days, 10 pounds could buy you several gin and tonics, with enough left over for a tip.
It also necessitated that other invention, the PIN number;
One by-product of inventing the first cash machine was the concept of the Pin number.
Mr Shepherd-Barron came up with the idea when he realised that he could remember his six-figure army number. But he decided to check that with his wife, Caroline.
“Over the kitchen table, she said she could only remember four figures, so because of her, four figures became the world standard,” he laughs. BBC News
Reg Varney, pictured to the left, was the first person to withdraw cash. It was the start of something big.
Today there are millions of ATM’s installed worldwide. And even Diebold (DBD-NYSE) is joining in on the celebration today, shrugging off a bad tape to trade green on the day.
Happy Birthday, ATM.
The man who invented the cash machine
BBC News
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