Who Invented the ATM? The Story of the First Cash Machine

Ask "Who invented the ATM?" and you will get different answers depending on who you ask. A Brit might say John Shepherd-Barron. A Texan might say Don Wetzel. A New Yorker with a long memory might mention Luther Simjian. The honest answer is that the cash machine did not come from one person or one moment. It was assembled over about a decade by several inventors and banks, each solving a different piece. Here is how it really happened.

The Problem: Banks Kept Banker's Hours

For most of the 20th century, getting cash meant standing in line at a teller window during business hours. Miss closing time and you could be stuck without money until the next business day. Every inventor in this story was attacking that same frustration.

Luther Simjian and the Bankograph (1960–61)

Luther George Simjian was an Armenian-American inventor with patents ranging from flight-training equipment to cameras. His best-known banking idea was the Bankograph, a machine that let customers deposit cash or checks at any hour.

Because people were nervous about handing money to a machine, the Bankograph had a built-in microfilm camera that photographed each deposit, and the customer got a copy of the picture as a receipt. In 1960 and 1961, Simjian persuaded City Bank of New York, the forerunner of today's Citibank, to try a few of the machines in its branches.

It did not last. After roughly six months, the bank removed them because too few customers used them.

The important detail is that the Bankograph took in money; it did not hand out cash. So some historians call it the first automated banking machine, and others say it was not a true ATM.

Barclays, Enfield and the "Radioactive" Check (1967)

The machine most often called the world's first cash machine opened on June 27, 1967, at a Barclays branch in Enfield, a suburb of north London. It was built by De La Rue, a banknote printing company, and the idea is credited to John Shepherd-Barron, one of its executives.

According to Barclays, Shepherd-Barron got the idea after his bank closed before he could cash a check. Thinking about chocolate vending machines, he asked why cash could not come out of a machine the same way.

The first withdrawal was made by Reg Varney, a British comedy actor best known for the sitcom On the Buses. The machine was very different from today's ATMs:

• No plastic card. Customers used special paper checks treated with carbon-14, a mildly radioactive substance the machine could detect.
• A personal number. Customers also entered a code to prove the check was theirs.
• A small limit. It paid out £1 notes, up to £10 per use.

Barclays says Shepherd-Barron first wanted a six-digit code, based on his old army number, but his wife Caroline said she could only remember four digits. Four digits became the familiar standard. For the machine's 50th anniversary in 2017, Barclays installed a gold-colored cash machine at the Enfield branch.

The PIN Had Another Inventor Too

Scottish engineer James Goodfellow filed a UK patent application on May 2, 1966, for a system that paired a machine-readable card with a personal number known only to the customer. That is why many sources credit Goodfellow with inventing the PIN, even though Shepherd-Barron's machine was the first to be switched on.

Chemical Bank Brings the ATM to America (1969)

The first cash machine in the United States arrived on September 2, 1969, at a Chemical Bank branch in Rockville Centre, on Long Island, New York. It was called the Docuteller and was built by Docutel, a Dallas company that until then had made automated baggage-handling equipment.

Docutel executive Don Wetzel is generally credited with the idea, which reportedly came to him while waiting in a bank line. The big advance was the card: the Docuteller used reusable plastic cards with magnetically coded information instead of single-use paper vouchers. Chemical Bank promoted it with a memorable ad promising that on September 2 its bank would "open at 9:00 and never close again."

The first Docuteller only dispensed cash; Docutel's first patent described a "currency dispenser," and later machines added other teller services.

How the ATM Finally Caught On

Americans did not rush to the new machines overnight. Banks had to persuade customers to trust them. One famous turning point came in New York City. Citibank spent more than $100 million in the late 1970s to put ATMs across the city, and when a major blizzard struck in early 1978 and many branches could not open, people discovered that the machines were still working. Citibank's "The Citi Never Sleeps" ads followed, and other banks copied its lead.

So, Who Really Invented the ATM?

It depends on what you count:

• First automated deposit machine in a bank: Luther Simjian's Bankograph in New York.
• First cash dispenser in public use: the Barclays and De La Rue machine in Enfield, credited to John Shepherd-Barron.
• Early patent for a card plus a personal number: James Goodfellow.
• First U.S. machine with reusable magnetic cards: Don Wetzel and Docutel, at Chemical Bank.

Naming any one of them the sole inventor leaves out the rest. Like many inventions, the ATM arrived in pieces.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where was the first ATM in the United States?

At a Chemical Bank branch in Rockville Centre, New York, which installed a Docutel "Docuteller" on September 2, 1969.

Did the first ATM use a card?

No. The 1967 Barclays machine used paper checks marked with carbon-14 and a personal number. Reusable magnetic cards came with the 1969 Docuteller.

Why are most PINs four digits?

Barclays says John Shepherd-Barron cut his planned six-digit code to four after his wife said four digits were easier to remember.

The Bottom Line

Your Sunday-night cash run rests on work by a New York inventor, a London banknote company, a Scottish engineer and a Dallas firm. The "first ATM" is not one machine but a short chain of experiments.