Let us all take out $80 in his memory: John Shepherd-Barron, the inventor of the ATM, died on Saturday at the age of 84. Shepherd-Barron was born in India to Scottish parents, and closed out his days in Scotland. He came up with the idea for the ATM while in the bathtub, and the first machine was installed in London in 1967. Because bank cards were not yet invented, the original machines used special checks that were embedded with a radioactive substance that could be detected.