ATMs

From: Russ Blakeman <rhblake_at_bigfoot.com>
Date: Fri Oct 30 20:37:40 1998

Gene Ehrich wrote:

> I wrote the code for the first on-line ATM in the United States. This was
> in 1973. I worked for IBM at the time.
>
> It was in Califon NJ at Hunterton County Trust Company a monster of an 18
> million dollar asset bank.

And at that time all ATM's were at the exterior of the banks, bolted into a
reinforced wall opening and connected direct to the banks mainframe, except for
the branch banks that had to have the disk pack taken to the main division if
the branch did not have the correct reader or were manually transferred over
phone lines but were still part of the building. I don't remember the free
standing machines until around 1980 or 82. They were very accurate as you say
but could be depended upon to misread a card and therefore disallow a
transaction, or go offline and not do any transactions at all. Much of that was
bad installation leaving it in a place that wasn't temperature or humidity
stable. The part you state of the paper record being jammed and illegible was
a real and nearly fatal problem then.

My girlfriend at the time was a data processor for Standard Federal Bank in
Chicago and it was a continuous fight to get convenience transactions to be
very popular with the bank workers as well as bank customers. Many did not
trust them, more so than today (and they had no bogus ATM's in the mall at that
point yet). I still have a respect for the technology but don't trust my
personal livelyhood and security to the machines. I'll take my chances with
cash still.
Received on Fri Oct 30 1998 - 20:37:40 GMT