Shillong Hospital, where ATM inventor was born, installs its first ATM
The Medical Superintendent of Dr H Gordon Roberts Hospital Dr Roken Nongrum informed
that following a petition submitted to the State Bank of India for setting up an ATM on the
premises before the centennial celebrations, the machine was installed on August 7.
Dr H Gordon Roberts Hospital, Shillong got its first Automated Teller Machine (ATM), after 53 years of the global installation of such a cash dispenser.
Interestingly, on June 23, 1925, the inventor of ATM, John Adrian Shepherd-Barron was born in this hospital which will celebrate its centenary next year.
The Medical Superintendent of the hospital Dr Roken Nongrum informed that following a petition submitted to the State Bank of India for setting up an ATM on the premises before the centennial celebrations, the machine was installed on August 7.
"We are grateful to the bank authorities for considering our request. The ATM is special as the inventor of automated teller machine was born in this hospital 96 years ago," the doctor said.
Shepherd-Barron came up with the idea of a self-service cash dispenser in 1965. He had arrived at the bank post-closing hours one day and was unable to withdraw cash. Following this, while lying in his bathtub, he conceived the idea of a cash dispensing machine, which would not be restricted by banking hours. Thus, the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) was born and the first ATM was installed at a bank in London in 1967.
Reg Varney, one of the stars of a popular TV show became the first person to withdraw cash.
He also invented some other less well-known devices, including one which played the sound of a killer whale in an attempt to deter seals from salmon farms. When he retired to Scotland in 1985, when he was 60, he tried his hand at snail farming.
In 2010, India-born Scot Shepherd-Barron died at a hospital in Scotland.
(Edited by Aparmita Das)
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