How the ATM was invented, or why England is better than America.
The first ATM appeared in 1939 in America. The author of the invention was George Simian, the inventor of automatic focusing in cameras. The ATM was simply a “magic box” that could not accept payment, had no connection with the bank, could not deposit money into an account, but simply gave out money to anyone who asked nicely. Despite the objective shortcomings, this ATM stood for almost six months in one of the branches of the City Bank of New York, and was returned to the developer, with the request: “not to invent this again.” For 21 years, the miracle machine was forgotten like a bad dream.Despite the failure, Simyan improved the ATM. Having made a device called Bankograph in 1960. Inside it was a mini-camera, which took pictures of each coin and bill deposited and recorded the date and time, then issued a photo receipt for depositing funds into the client’s account. Simyan introduced his brainchild to First National City Bank, which was later renamed Citibank. Bank management installed the first example of a bankograph in New York. And... Everything didn’t work out again. It was 1960, and no one trusted their hard-earned money to a suspicious mechanical box. The bankographer's only clients were pimps, prostitutes and other criminals who preferred not to deal with cashiers. The bankograph was sent to the landfill after six months, just like its predecessor.
Another five years passed, 1966. It was in good old England. According to a centuries-old tradition, all its banks are open until lunch. Of all the irons, the early Beatles play. There are vending machines selling chocolate bars on street corners. At one of these machines, a respectable gentleman is perplexed. “Why can I buy a chocolate bar whenever I want, but I can only get the money before lunch,” he thinks, unwrapping the crispy wrapper. This gentleman's name is Sir Shepherd-Barron, he is the chief executive of the British company De La Rue.
Over the course of a year, Shepard-Barron developed his own ATM on a technical basis, the very same machine with chocolates. However, this is where all the frivolity ends. Shepard-Barron developed, along with the machine, a system for encoding data from a special check that the ATM read. The check had to be purchased from a bank and contained radioactive tags that were read by a machine. Such checks were sold only to wealthy clients who had earned the trust of the bank. (yes, being rich and respected was dangerous). And the amount issued for such a check by an ATM could not be more than 10 pounds sterling (with this money, according to Sheppard himself, one could have a good party on the weekend). With true English meticulousness and stiffness, the “chocolate” ATM “happy weekend” appeared in London in 1967. The idea was implemented by the fourth largest bank in the world at that time - Barclays.
In the 1960s, an ATM was called a robot teller. Over time, the professional phrase automated teller machine, or ATM, which is still used today, the neutral cash machine - “cash machine” and the colloquial hole in the wall, that is, “hole in the wall” - have become established in the English language. I can’t help but remember Tatyana Tolstoy’s story “The Window”.
The prototype of the pincode was also invented by Sheppard. Originally it contained 6 digits. But the inventor’s wife authoritatively stated that the number of numbers that a normal person can remember is four. Sheppard didn't argue with her.
Shepard-Barron did not patent his invention for safety reasons. And subsequently he earned almost nothing from his brainchild except the respect of his compatriots. Then the queen presented him with an order for injustice.
I liked the invention, despite the high cost. And already the Wensminster bank orders an ATM for Sheppard. ATMs appear among the Germans, the Swedes, and the Japanese within a matter of months after their appearance in England. The first hacks began and shortcomings were discovered - the first machine in London was attacked by vandals, and inexplicable malfunctions began in the operation of an ATM installed in Zurich. It was later determined that the intersecting wires of a nearby tram line sparked, causing the interference.
And then the Americans got down to business again. First they patented all the technologies. There was an employee at IBM who finally realized that without marketing you couldn’t even bring an ATM to the market. The employee's name was Don Wetzel. Before developing a cash dispensing machine, Wetzel conducted research to understand how popular such an innovation would be. If you take into account only the number of large bank branches in the country where ATMs could be located, then the work for their manufacturer should be enough for several years. In 1969, Wetzel presented the research results to the top management of the Recognition Equipment Corporation, and the project received $4 million in funding.
Wetzel's ATM turned out to be more similar to modern ATMs than the first European devices. For the first time in the world, a card with a magnetic tape was used here; when withdrawing cash, the card was not confiscated, but remained with the client. Since the first American ATMs were also not connected by a network, there was a limit on the number of transactions in one day. Information about transactions for each day was recorded by a printer in a special journal, which was then delivered to the bank. The information in it was recorded with special magnetic ink for automatic reading.
The ATM body was made of steel with a thickness of about 16 mm, which was a serious argument in favor of the safety of the device. The price of the ATM was about 8 thousand US dollars, so manufacturers had to make a lot of effort to convince banks that such an expense was worthwhile. The main argument in favor was that the ATM, operating around the clock, would be able to attract new customers.
No wonder the advertising banner for Chemical Bank, which installed the first ATM, announced: “On September 3, 1969, our branch will open at 09:00 and will never close!”
ATMs have learned to network, process information, and exchange it. Now credit cards are slowly relegating cash to the background.
In 2007, Shepard and his wife went to northern Thailand. There they observed a local farmer drive up to the ATM on an oxcart and respectfully remove his hat from his head before using it. “That was the first time I thought we had changed the world,” John Shepherd-Barron later told the BBC.
(c) https://card-online.ru/articles
