Knowledge Story: Interestingly, plastic credit cards were not used in ATMs like nowadays. People actually used paper vouchers that were printed with radioactive ink. After that the machine used to read it.
ATM
ATM Plastic Card: Ever since ATMs have come, how easy our life has become. ATMs provide easy and quick withdrawal of money without any hassle. Do you know when and where the first ATM was started? Let us tell you that in the year 1967, ATM was started in the North London branch of Barclays Bank. The interesting thing is that plastic credit cards were not used in this like nowadays. People actually used paper vouchers that were printed with radioactive ink. After that the machine used to read it.
- Earlier there were identification codes to go to ATM
Each customer had an identification code and was allowed to withdraw up to £10 (about Rs 1000) in a single transaction. Nowadays, we all use ATM machine in our everyday life. A study has shown that these cash machines are very dirty and have germs like public toilets. This was revealed after health experts took swabs from the numeric keypads at several ATMs, which are used by multiple shoppers in a day. Similar swabs were also taken from the seats of public toilets for comparison. Swabs were allowed to grow overnight.
- Nowadays ATMs are dirtier than public toilets
The bacteria were then analyzed in the laboratory using a microscope. To everyone’s surprise, the samples from both locations contained Pseudomonads and Bacillus. These bacteria cause bloating, diarrhea and sickness. During the current epidemic, going to the small room of the ATM has become even more dangerous. While that place can be a stronghold of germs. The number of people touching ATM doors, buttons, screens, etc. makes ATMs a very risky place during a pandemic. It has been suggested by many experts that it would be better to resort to online transactions to reduce the number of people at ATMs.