Learn the story behind the creation of the ATM, an element that can be found in any bank in the world today.
If one thinks today about withdrawing money from a bank, the image of the ATM. However, fifty years ago no one would have thought of that, except the British John Sheperd-Barron.
And if a person wanted to carry out the same action before 1967, had to go to the nearest branch of his bank during office hoursnot a minute later, not a minute earlier. If this did not happen, there was no money.
Another network of ATMs arrives in Argentina
The history of the creation of the ATM
That was exactly what happened to Sheperd-Barron, who one day had to travel from the countryside where he lived to London to cash a check at his bank branch but couldn’t because it had closed. This caused enormous frustration in the man, who that same night dedicated himself to thinking about how he could get money at any time.
From there a memory came to mind: the machines that sold chocolatesthat by inserting a coin and pulling a lever a drawer opened and the products fell out. Only there would be a small modification in the equation, since instead of chocolates money would come out.
The Sheperd-Barron invention had to go through some challenges, such as the authentication of checks at the time of payment. In this sense, a process was created that required the client to go through the bank and be given as many checks worth £10 as needed, the amount of which was deducted from the account before payment. The checks were impregnated with carbon 14, which allowed their authenticity to be recognized and the 10 pounds to be delivered to the owner of each account.
Before this, customers had to enter a password to maintain the security of your accounts. The creator of the ATM consulted his wife, Carolinewhat was the number of digits that she could remember without problem, and although his number was six, she managed to remember four. In this way the famous four-digit code was created, or PIN (Personal Identification Number).
June 27, 1967 the first ATM was installedmarketed by the British firm De La Rue in a branch of Barclays Bank. Today, this element can be seen anywhere in the world.
Source: Ambito
