History of the Automatic Teller 473
XopherMV writes "The line was long and slow, and he became increasingly irritated as his lunch hour dribbled away. All at once, he had a flash of inspiration. 'Golly, all the teller does is cash checks, take deposits, answer questions like "What's my balance?" and transfer money between accounts,' recalls Wetzel, now 75 and still living in Dallas with his wife. 'Wow, I think we could build a machine that could do that!' And with a $4 million go-ahead from Docutel's parent company, that's exactly what he and his engineers did. Read more about the story of the ATM."
History of the first post? (Score:0, Funny)
cold trip (Score:5, Funny)
I would hate to be the armored truck driver responsible for keeping that one filled.
site still up (Score:1, Funny)
Just submit a story with an incredibly tedious subject and containing almost no technical information at all.
Pretty much offttopic but... (Score:5, Funny)
That invention has saved so many people... (Score:3, Funny)
Politicians when they need money for their hookers, no more personal checks.
When all those dirty old men run out of money at the strip club they can hit the atm
And, me when I need bar money late at night (I won't take a credit card cause then there goes the bank)
Face-to-Interface? (Score:2, Funny)
Ironically, the same thing happened with sex around the same time.
Oh no... an entire article... (Score:5, Funny)
Queueing (Score:2, Funny)
So now, instead of waiting on a teller, we wait in a long line of people trying to get to the ATM with the person at the front repeatedly putting in his card while all the time muttering under his breath "I'm sure I had money in here!"
Re:other denoms (Score:2, Funny)
The moral of the story is, I hate 20's.
Re:Sexist comment (Score:4, Funny)
Why can't they just take their time for once?
Re:Oh no... an entire article... (Score:5, Funny)
It's spelled "nitpick".
Re:An American invention? (Score:4, Funny)
Since that has never occurred, it is hard to say. But the prophecies speak of a Duke Nuken Forever Gone Gold article with no trolls, everyone RTFA, no in-jokes, and no slashdot effect!
Re:An American invention? (Score:3, Funny)
Its always the case. The Brits invent the prototype, then the Americans refine it, market it, and take the credit. From Democracy to Computers, from Trains to Planes.
Now wait a second. We Americans have invented some pretty useful stuff like the light bulb [coolquiz.com], the telephone [uh.edu], and the automobile [ideafinder.com]. You can't take those away from us!
Re:My favorite ATM story (Score:3, Funny)
Some theives stole and entire ATM from a gas bar. The ATM was (of course) secured, and the ATM guys were proud of their anti-theft bolts.. it would take an experienced welder 20-30 minutes to free the ATM, which would (of course) give the police lots of time to respond to the alarm.
The theives didn't have a welder.
They backed a cargo van through the side of the store, drove a forklift out of it, ripped the ATM out of the wall with the forklift, and carried it into the van.
Total time: under 90 seconds.
The moral of the story: never underestimate the brute force approach.
Of course, one has to wonder about why theives who could afford a forklift and cargo van would want to steal a few thousand dollars from an ATM... (nobody ever mentioned a stoled forklift or van.)
ATM vs. People (Score:3, Funny)