Cash Machine Inventor Dies (ATM)

By: Kara Gilmour
05/20/2010 08:41 AM ET

Cash Machine inventor dies of illness. John Shephard-Barron was the inventor of the ATM cash automatic machine dies at 84. He died peacefully at a hospital in Scotland on Saturday.

John Shepherd-Barron changed the world with his money invention. Each time you walk up to an ATM to withdrawal money, it was already planted in his vision some 43 years ago. The idea first hit him when he arrived at his bank after hours, because the only thing stopping him from getting his money was business hours.

He started thinking about how to obtain funds when after banking hours. Then, like magic, he came up with the idea when he was in the bath. “It struck me, there must be a way I could get my own money, anywhere in the world or the UK,” he said during an interview in 2007.

“I hit upon the idea of a chocolate bar dispenser, but replacing chocolate with cash.” He took his invention to Barclays and raised awareness that they could charge a fee for people to take money from the Automatic Teller Machine. The ideal sold, and the bank installed it at their London location in 1967.

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