LUTHER SIMJIAN INVENTED THE AUTOMATED TELLER MACHINE (ATM)
October 23, 2014
Luther Simjian is best known for devising the first automated teller
machine.
Born to Armenian parents, Luther Simjian grew up in Antep, Turkey,
but was separated from his family in the Armenian Genocide.[1] Simjian
first went to Beirut, later to Marseille. In 1920 he emigrated to the
USA, where he found shelter with relatives in New Haven, Connecticut.
Beginning at the age of 15, he worked there as a photographer. He
gave up his initial plans of studying medicine when he was engaged
as a laboratory photographer by the Yale School of Medicine. Later,
in 1928, he became director of their photography department, and
invented several machines such as a projector for microscope images.
In 1934 Simjian moved to New York City, where he invented a self-posing
portrait camera, with which the photographed person could see and
optimize their own image in a mirror before the photo was actually
taken. In order to manufacture and distribute the camera, which
became a success for use in department stores, he founded the company
Photoreflex. Years later, after selling the invention and the trade
name, the company was renamed Reflectone, a name drawn from another of
Simjian’s inventions, a kind of cosmetic chair with movable mirrors,
where one could see their own body from all perspectives.
In 1939 Simjian had the idea to build the Bankmatic Automated Teller
Machine, probably his most famous invention. Despite the skepticism
of the banks, he registered 20 patents for it and developed a number
of features and principles that can still be found in today’s ATMs,
including their name. He finally persuaded the City Bank of New York,
today Citibank, to run a 6-month trial. The trial was however not
continued — surprisingly not due to technical inefficiencies, but
to lack of demand. It seems the only people using the machines were
a small number of prostitutes and gamblers who didn’t want to deal
with tellers face to face, Simjian wrote. Hence Simjian missed out
on not only the commercial success, but also the fame associated
with inventing the ATM. This credit is often attributed to John
Shepherd-Barron (who invented the first true electronic ATM) and
Donald Wetzel (who directed a 5 million US-$ project to build upon
Shepherd-Barron’s invention in the late 1960s).
Simjian gained commercial success during World War II with another
invention, his Optical Range Estimation Trainer, a kind of simple
flight simulator, made from mirrors, light sources and miniature
airplanes, used to train US military pilots in estimating the speed
and distance of airplanes. Simjian sold over 2000 of these devices.
Today’s successor of Reflectone (after a number of mergers and
acquisitions), CAE, is still making its money with flight simulation
and control technology.
Simjian founded several other companies in the following years
and invented a number of very different devices and technologies,
e. g. a teleprompter, medical ultrasound devices, a remote-controlled
postage meter, a golf simulator and a meat tenderizer. He never ceased
inventing in his laboratories in Fort Lauderdale. At the age of 92,
he got his last patent on a process for improving the sound of wood
for musical instruments, seven months before his death in 1997.