It was 50 years today — on June 27, 1967, a few weeks after the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band — an innovation came out of England that transformed an industry and changed consumer behavior around the world. The first automatic teller machine came into use at a Barclays Bank branch in a London suburb. As technology historian Michael Lamm points out, the tech was nontrivial: It brought together innovations in photography (to recognize deposited bills), financial security (including the invention of the PIN), vacuum-based mechanics (for dispensing cash), magnetic coding (for ATM cards), printing (for receipts), and industrial design (to forestall theft, the steel was tough enough to resist an acetylene torch for eight hours). In the ensuing half-century, the ATM has proved to be one of the most important innovations in the history of banking — and beyond. Although it is often taken for granted today, this device changed shopping and weekends, and was the forebearer of the on-demand economy.
