The bank that used the first ATM, Citi Bank, and the inventor of the ATM is Armenian Luther George Simjian, who was born in Gaziantep, one of the important cities of Turkey.
Luther George Simjian was born on 28 January 1905 in Gaziantep. Luther Simjian, the son of an Armenian family, first settled in Beirut and then in Marseille. He settled in Connecticut, America, as an immigrant in 1920. He studied medicine, but photography became his lifelong passion. In 1934, he moved to New York.
Luther George Simjian (January 28, 1905 – October 23, 1997) was an Armenian-American inventor and entrepreneur. A prolific and professional inventor, he held over 200 patents, mostly related to optics and electronics. His most significant inventions were a pioneering flight simulator, arguably the first ATM and improvement to the teleprompter.
He invented the first to photograph microscope images. Later, he invented the machine that took pictures by posing and focusing on itself. Luther George Simjian is the inventor of the make-up tables called “Reflectone”, where we can see ourselves from every angle. In 1939, Simjian invented the ATM. Simjian brought the basic features used in ATMs even today. Tried CitiBank ATM for 6 months. However, ATM did not receive the expected attention at that time.
Luther Simjian patented a very successful prototype of this device in 1939.
The fact that his invention was not very popular at that time and Simjian's unwillingness to deal with explaining the use of the ATM caused him to miss the fame associated with the invention of the ATM, as well as deprived of great commercial success. This worked well for John Shepherd-Barron and Donald Wetzel. In the late 1960s, Weltz earned $5 million.
Luther Simjian made 200 inventions in his lifetime.