HE is the grandfather of the cash machine but is only now getting the recognition he feels he deserves for a device used by millions around the world each day.

But Scottish engineer James Goodfellow is still ready to fight his corner and has blasted suggestions that today is the 50th anniversary of the 'hole in the wall'.

Mr Goodfellow patented his device, which was based on the card and pin number system familiar to bank users everywhere, in 1966, but was scooped to the high street by a rival machine built by John Shepherd-Barron.

But Mr Shepherd-Barron's cash machine was based on the use of slightly radioactive cheques, and has understandably fallen out of favour while Mr Goodfellow's lives on in the system in use today.

He said: "I had a patent application in 15 different countries and it took months to organise all that. By the time we did the world's first machine, designed by Mr Shepherd-Barron, had been installed by Barclays at its Enfield branch in north London, because he never bothered to patent his.

"But the system he designed wasn't widely picked up, whereas mine was and is still basically the same one that's in use today.

"I was always annoyed I didn't get the credit I did while he was lunching with the queen over his invention, and I only spoke up when he was awarded and OBE and things began to change."

During the early 1960s, Mr Goodfellow, of Paisley, was working as a development engineer for Glasgow firm Kelvin Hughes when he was charged with devising a way to enable customers to withdraw cash from banks when Saturday opening ended.

He came up with a punch card tied to a pin number that had to be entered on a keypad before any money was issued, and was able to design a working prototype.

He said: "What you have to remember is that back in the 1960s, there were several ways to approach the problem of building a machine which would issue money.

"The police were concerned because it could attract criminals and the banks were worried because around £2 million would be left sitting around inside the cash machines.

"It had to be fullproof, waterproof, tamperproof and able to withstand any interruption to the electricity supply without issuing money it wasn't supposed to."

He added: "I was able to do that using a punched card which was around the size of a credit card. In the years since the invention was improved with the addition of a magnetic strip and then a computer chip, bu it's still the same basic system"

The 80-year-old says he is not bothered by the lack of attention his role was given down the years, and has since been awarded an OBE himself as well as an honourary degree from the University of the West of Scotland and induction into the Scottish engineering hall of fame.

He said: "Since I went public with the patent things have changed. There's been no rewriting on encyclopedia's and Mr Shepherd-Barron still gets more credit than he deserves, but I now find that my place as the inventor of the cash machine is recognised.

"I would liked to have some money from it. It would have been nice and I could have an easy life, but it's more important to me that the record is set straight.

"The again, I saw last year that 400 employees of a failed bank had received bonuses of £1million, and how is their contribution to the indistry greater than mine? But that is the way of life."

Despite the rise in other new technologies such as online and mobile banking, the ATM remains popular 50 years on.

The UK record for the most cash withdrawn in a day was broken as recently as December last year as Christmas shoppers withdrew £730 million, according to industry figures.