Who invented the ATM machine?

It depends on who you ask!
by A.W. Miller, ATMmachine.com

Over the years many people have tried to lay claim to the title of "inventor of the ATM."
Some believe that Luther George Simjian was the inventor because his idea came first.
Some believe it was Don Wetzel, after all, he's got patents on display in the Museum of American History to prove it.
Still others, including the Queen of England, say the inventor is John Shepherd-Barron.
John D. White has contacted ATMmachine.com, sent us copies of his patents, and gave very convincing evidence that he is the inventor of the ATM and not Don Wetzel.
James Goodfellow of Scotland also contacted ATMmachine.com and gave us his account,, including copies of detailed patents, that he should be considered the inventor of the ATM.
Jairus Larson contacted ATMmachine.com and told us that, although he did not invent the ATM, he did develop the first "on-line" ATM.

Since the patent on an ATM as we know it was never applied for until years after Simjian, confusion on the inventor still exists. One reason for the confusion is that John Shepherd-Barron lived in the United Kingdom, James Goodfellow in Scotland, while the others lived in the USA. I will present all the facts and evidence as I know it on this page, while being brief.

The ATM Inventors and the facts:

Luther George Simjian

In the late 1930's, Luther George Simjian started building an earlier and not-so-successful version of an ATM, but he did register related patents. He initially came up with the idea of creating a hole-in-the-wall machine that would allow customers to make financial transactions, the idea was met with a great deal of doubt. Starting in 1939, Simjian registered 20 patents related to the device and persuaded what is now Citicorp to give it a trial. After six months, the bank reported that there was little demand. Today, as you know, there is a huge demand!

John Shepherd-Barron

John Shepherd-Barron had an idea in the 1960's for a 24/7 cash dispenser. At the time, he was managing director of De La Rue Instruments. De La Rue today manufactures cash dispensers. In fact, there is a De La Rue cash dispenser in 1 out of every 5 ATM machines built. If you want to believe that Shepherd-Barron invented the ATM, then the world's first ATM was installed outside a north London branch of Barclays Bank in 1967. Later In 1967, Shepherd-Barron presented his idea to a conference of 2,000 US bankers in Miami, after the first ATMs had been installed in England. He spoke to the conference about the new self-service banking device he developed. On December 31, 2004, John Shepherd-Barron, was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, or OBE, by the Queen of England for services to banking. "It was a bit late, but better late than never," said Shepherd-Barron. Press releases stated that Shepherd-Barron was the "Inventor of the ATM." But, was he?

James Goodfellow

As a Development engineer with Smiths Industries Ltd, James Goodfellow was given the project of developing an automatic cash dispenser in 1965. Chubb Lock & Safe Co. were to provide the secure physical housing and the mechanical dispenser mechanism. Eventually Mr. Goodfellow designed a system which accepted a machine readable encrypted card, to which he added a numerical keypad. UK Patent No.1,197,183 with a priority date of May 2 1966, covers this invention, and it is also covered by US Patent No.3,905,461 and Patents granted by many other countries. These Patents list James Goodfellow as inventor, along with the late A.I.O.Davies, the company General Manager. This US Patent still describes the basic ATM function almost 40 years later. These Machines were marketed by Chubb LTD and installed nationwide in the UK during the late 60s and early 70s. You can read ATM inventor James Goodfellow's story here on ATMmachine.com. Thanks goes out to Mr. Goodfellow for giving us his permission. (Update: In 2006, James Goodfellow was selected by the Queen to be awarded an OBE for services to Banking as patentee of the Personal Identification Number (PIN), and his service to banking.

Don Wetzel

In 1968, according to a NMAH interview, Don Wetzel, says he was the Vice President of Product Planning at Docutel, the company that developed automated baggage-handling equipment. He applied for a patent on an ATM machine. He said there were two other inventors listed on the patent. They were Tom Barnes, a mechanical engineer and George Chastain, an electrical engineer. It took five million dollars to develop their ATM according to Mr. Wetzel. If you want to believe that Wetzel and company invented the ATM, then you might want to read the next paragraph.

John D. White

John D. White told ATMmachine.com that his work started in 1968. He told us that he installed the first ATM at Rockville Center, LI for the then Chemical Bank in August 1973. His design was patented on May 9, 1973 for the Docutel Corporation and was filed on July 29, 1970. The machine was called a "Credit Card Automatic Currency Dispenser". Mr. White provided copies of his patent to ATMmachine.com for our review. Indeed it states the inventor of the machine was John D. White and Kenneth Goldstein, and the assignee on the patent was the Docutel Corporation. It does seem to us that this is very convincing evidence that it was White and not Wetzel who received the patent. There is also a statement in the patent that supports the idea of the modern ATM. "Both the original code and the updated code are scrambled in accordance with a changing key", which is basically what happens today. ATMs are programmed with security keys and the code changes and is scrambled to prevent fraudulent access to credit card and ATM numbers between the machine, the bank, and the network processor. We would like to thank Mr. White for contacting us. The patent drawings he gave us look very much like the free standing ATM that is sold on ATMmachine.com today.

Jairus Larson

Jairus Larson told ATMmachine.com that although he did not invent the ATM, as far as he is aware, he did develop the very first 'on-line' ATM (Diebold's "550"). The first ATM's were all 'off-line' versions (sometimes referred to as 'stand-alone') meaning they did not have any means to communicate with the bank. Today's ATMs are 'on-line' meaning they communicate with the bank's computer system. Mr. Larson was kind enough to give us his account of how this happened in the early 1970's. You can read about Mr. Larson's ATM development here.

Who does ATMmachine.com think was the inventor?

Who invented the idea of an ATM? We believe it was Luther George Simjian. Who invented the ATM as we know it? We have to think it was James Goodfellow in Scotland for holding a patent date of 1966. Who invented the free standing ATM design we recognize today? We think it was John D. White for Docutel in the US.

We would like to say that the Smithsonian Institute Museum may need to take a closer look at who they claim the inventor of the ATM is. We do not believe they had all the facts available to them when they made their choice. They still may choose to say Don Wetzel, but until presented with the evidence we were given, that decision may have been premature. And with all due respect to the Queen of England, she needs to include James Goodfellow of Scotland when speaking of "services to banking," and giving credit to the inventor of the ATM in the United Kingdom.

The story seems to be ever changing and we will update this page whenever we get new information.

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Copyright ©1998-2008
John D. White and James Goodfellow transcripts were written to ATMmachine.com and a reference credit must be given to ATMmachine.com or a link back.

References
1. Research by ATMmachine.com
2. NMAH interview, 1995
3. John D. White
4. James Goodfellow, KCHS, I.Eng., FIIE