[ RadSafe ] This Day In Gadgets: ATMs Were Born Radioactive 40 Years Ago

[John Jacobus]

Okay. I'll bite. Why were the checks radioactive?  To
monitor the number of bills as they as they were
dispensed?

--- Cary Renquist <cary_rdsfe at pacbell.net> wrote:

>
<http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/this-day-in-gadgets/atms-were-born-radioactive-40-years-ago-272643.php>
> 
> ATMs Were Born Radioactive 40 Years Ago 
> 
> This is John Shepherd-Barron, the scottish guy who 
> invented the first ATM. First installed 40 year ago
> by
> Barclays, it 
> worked with Carbon 14-impregnated cheques, the same
> radioactive material 
> that is used to date fossils. But fret not: not only
> it wasn't 
> radioactive enough but they were soon replaced by
> cards and now even 
> dogs can use them. The next step according to him: 
> 
> He says that moving money around costs too much, so
> ATMs will disappear 
> in just a few years. Instead, he predicts the
> cellphone will become our 
> next purse for all kinds of transactions. 
> 
> The ATM also brought other things, like the 4-digit
> PIN number. 
> Shepherd-Barron thought that he could use his
> six-figure army number as 
> his password, but his wife thought otherwise: "Over
> the kitchen table, 
> she said she could only remember four figures, so
> because of her, four 
> figures became the world standard." 
> 
> 

+++++++++++++++++++
“All men dream, but not equally. Some dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds and wake in the day to find it is vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible.”
Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T. E. Lawrence

-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail:  crispy_bird at yahoo.com


       
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