Luther George Simjian was a lifelong innovator who invented many things. The most famous one is his contribution to the evolution of the automatic teller machine (ATM).
In 1951, Luther Simjian was born in Turkey. As a young child he developed an interest in optics and photography. After World War One he was separated from his family. Simijian fled to Beirut, then on to Marseille, and finally at age 15 reached the United States of America all alone. He went to Connecticut, to stay with relatives and supported himself through a job with a photographer.
At first, Simjian wanted to be a doctor, but changed his mind after the medical school at Yale gave him a job in its photographic laboratory. In 1928 he was named director of the photography department at the medical school, and started his long list of inventions. A color X-ray machine and a self-posing portrait camera to name but a few.
When Simjian initially came up with the idea of creating a hole-in-the-wall machine that would allow customers to make financial transactions, the idea was met with a great deal of skepticism. Starting in 1939, Simjian registered 20 patents related to the device and convinced Citicorp to give it a trial. After six months, the bank reported that there was little demand.
Later the idea of this machine picked up, and today, modern ATM machines stand on nearly every street in the world.
© 2006 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
