<P> After looking firsthand at the experiences in Europe, in 1968 the ATM was pioneered in the U.S. by Donald Wetzel, who was a department head at a company called Docutel . Docutel was a subsidiary of Recognition Equipment Inc of Dallas, Texas, which was producing optical scanning equipment and had instructed Docutel to explore automated baggage handling and automated gasoline pumps . In 1969, a venture capital consortium purchased Docutel with the aim of bringing its ATM to market without delay . By 1974, Docutel had acquired 70 percent of the U.S. market; but as a result of the early 1970s worldwide recession and its reliance on a single product line, Docutel lost its independence and was forced to merge with the U.S. subsidiary of Olivetti . </P> <P> Wetzel was recognised by the United States Patent Office as having invented the ATM in the form of U.S. Patent #3,761,682; the application had been filed in October 1971 and the patent was granted in 1973 . However, the U.S. patent record cites at least three previous applications from Docutel, all relevant to the development of the ATM and where Wetzel does not figure, namely US Patent #3,662,343, U.S. Patent #3651976 and U.S. Patent #3, 68,569 . These patents are all credited to Kenneth S. Goldstein, MR Karecki, TR Barnes, GR Chastian and John D. White . </P> <P> On September 2, 1969, Chemical Bank installed the first ATM in the U.S. at its branch in Rockville Centre, New York . The first ATMs were designed to dispense a fixed amount of cash when a user inserted a specially coded card . A Chemical Bank advertisement boasted "On Sept. 2 our bank will open at 9: 00 and never close again ." Chemical's ATM, initially known as a Docuteller was designed by Donald Wetzel and his company Docutel . Chemical executives were initially hesitant about the electronic banking transition given the high cost of the early machines . Additionally, executives were concerned that customers would resist having machines handling their money . In 1995, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History recognised Docutel and Wetzel as the inventors of the networked ATM . </P> <P> The first modern ATM was an IBM 2984 and came into use at Lloyds Bank, High Street, Brentwood, Essex, UK in December 1972 . The IBM 2984 was designed at the request of Lloyds Bank . The 2984 Cash Issuing Terminal was the first true ATM, similar in function to today's machines and named by Lloyds Bank: Cashpoint . Cashpoint is still a registered trademark of Lloyds Banking Group in the UK, but is often used as a generic trademark to refer to ATMs of all UK banks . All were online and issued a variable amount which was immediately deducted from the account . A small number of 2984s were supplied to a U.S. bank . A couple of well known historical models of ATMs include the IBM 3614, IBM 3624 and 473x series, Diebold 10xx and TABS 9000 series, NCR 1780 and earlier NCR 770 series . </P>

When was the first atm installed in the us