The patent system allows the inventors of many popular things to earn millions of dollars. I remember in some American comedy they played out a moment where one of the heroines of the film is a very wealthy person, since her grandmother invented the toaster spring, and the whole family still receives royalties from toaster manufacturers. In general, this is close to the truth, despite the fact that the film is a comedy.
But there are exceptions. James Goodfellow, who patented a device for automatically issuing paper money to bank customers, earned virtually nothing. He got $15 and that's it. But billions of people use ATMs, millions of people use the devices themselves (3 million, to be precise).
The Guardian recently published an interview with Goodfellow, in which the inventor shared the story of the creation of the ATM. Or rather, its prototype, there are still some differences between the original invention and modern ATMs. The inventor claims that the very concept of a money dispensing machine came to mind not only to him, but it was his idea that led to the creation of the ATM. Here he recalls the Wright brothers, who did not create the very concept of flight; many people did this with them (and before them). But they created a working prototype of an airplane that could fly, which is why they are considered the creators of the airplane.
Goodfellow says few people know about his patent, and he didn't tell anyone until 2005, when a completely different person, John Shepherd-Barron, received the award for inventing the ATM. Award: Order of the British Empire. Interestingly, Goodfellow received a similar order, but not for the invention of the ATM, but for the idea of introducing PIN codes for these devices. Shepherd-Barron, by the way, does not have a patent for a device for dispensing cash to bank customers, although he created a similar device around the same time as Goodfellow.
The system for issuing cash to bank customers at any time was created by Goodfellow in the mid-60s. Then he worked for the large company Kelvin Hughes. The task to develop a system for issuing money after the end of the working day was received from the authorities. As a result, the inventor came up with a system that could issue funds to a bank client after he, the client, had been identified. The identification process was two-factor - the client had to insert a special plastic card with perforated holes into the slot (their placement was unique for each client), plus enter his PIN code (10-digit).
A money dispensing system was created, and the first such machine was installed in 1967 in one of the Westminster Bank branches.
A similar system of authorship by another inventor, Shepherd-Burrow, was also installed in 1967, and a month earlier than the Goodfellow system. However, the patent for the invention belongs to the hero of this publication. He filed patent applications with bureaus in 15 countries. The analogue also issued money after identifying the client, but here it was not a plastic card that was used, but a check with a carbon isotope, carbon-14.
Goodfellow's authorship has already been recognized by the government. And in the book Life in the United Kingdom (which should be studied by those who would like to obtain British citizenship), Goodfellow is already listed as the creator of the ATM.
According to him, the invention did not change his life. But Goodfellow is happy with everything. “I really enjoyed doing my job,” says the inventor of the ATM.
