LEGEND
James
GOODFELLOW OBE
P reviously in our ‘ Legend ’ section , we ’ ve examined the lives of prominent investors and financial minds . However , this time we ’ d like to pay tribute to an inventor who helped shape the modern world and yet arguably still isn ’ t quite a household name : James Goodfellow OBE , inventor of PINs and the ATM .
Born in 1937 in the Scottish town of Paisley , Renfrewshire , Goodfellow completed an apprenticeship at Renfrew Electrical & Radio Engineers in 1958 . Following the completion of his national service , he found work as a development engineer at Kelvin Hughes ( now part of Smith ’ s Industries ) in 1961 . During this time , UK banks sought a convenient way to reduce Saturday working hours while also maximising service for customers . The concept of an automated cash dispensing machine had circulated for at least three decades prior , but no one had been able to develop it successfully . In 1965 , Goodfellow was tasked with the project .
It proved to be far from an easy one . Much like the tech projects of today , the proposed solution would need to incorporate convenience and functionality without sacrificing security . Interestingly , previous research had actually explored the use of sophisticated biometrics ( voice recognition , fingerprints , retinal patterns ,
1937 born
29
Age at time of ATM patent
The inventor of PINs and the modern ATM
etc .) to satisfy the latter . However , the feasibility of these methods exceeded both cost boundaries and contemporary tech maturity and were subsequently abandoned .
Goodfellow ’ s key innovation was to combine a personal machine-readable card with a machine equipped with a numerical keypad . Used in tandem with a personal identification number ( PIN ), the two forms of encryption would be matched to an internal system for either acceptance or denial of service . Customers suddenly had a unique and safe way to withdraw their cash .
His invention received its patent ( UK No . 1,197,183 ) on 2 May 1966 . Later , in 1967 , John Shepherd-Barron at De La Rue designed an ATM capable of accepting cheques impregnated with a radioactive compound . This was made available to the public in London , and Shepherd-Barron was afterwards widely credited as having invented the modern ATM , despite Goodfellow ’ s design being registered first and operating in exactly the same way as the ATMs still in use today .
In 2006 , Goodfellow was given an Order of the British Empire ( OBE ) and was inducted into the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame in 2016 . Despite these honours , Goodfellow
spoke of his regret to the BBC that wider recognition has eluded him for an invention that changed the world . It is in the spirit of setting the record straight that we honour him in this issue .
18 June 2021