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Griffin Daily News
Credit card watchdogs
may save millions
By KATHYSTARK
Copley News Service
What travels faster than a
speeding bullet, costs nothing
and is able to buy tall orders in
a few seconds?
A credit card.
That little piece of embossed
plastic which has revolution
ized the world of finance,
caused an upheavel in the wal
let-designing business, and is
leading the charge toward a
cashless society.
In the not-too-distant future,
a SIOO bill may be as
anachronistic as a bag of gold
dust —a memento, perhaps.
Something you might give your
second-grader to take to class
for “show and tell.”
It’s hard to say what a credit
card won’t purchase these
days. A bus ride, perhaps. Or a
piece of penny gum or candy
from a vending machine. Or
metered parking place. Or,
some larger things such as
houses, automobiles, or real
property.
You can pay for almost any
thing else with a credit card.
A trip to Afghanistan, scuba
diving instructions, college tui
tion, garbage removal and psy
chiatric care. You can have
your teeth pulled, your dog
spayed and your tombstone
etched.
As Americans, we are the
most prosperous and affluent
people on earth. Yet we also
are the most deeply in debt and
the most financially dependent
on credit.
In 1970 there were more than
50 million bank credit cards in
circulation against a mere 5
million about five years ago. In
addition, more than 40 million
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of us have two or more gasoline
cards and more than 6 million
travel-entertainment cards are
in use.
The extent to which crimi
nals have invaded this lucra
tive field can be only estimated
by the fact that one million
known credit cards of all kinds
were used by thieves and other
fradulent operators to run up
$l5O million in unauthorized
charges last year — as against
S2O million in such losses in
1966.
As a result, credit card
issuers are scrambling to tight
en their security measures
worldwide, to protect them
selves as well as the card
owner.
What has long been sought is
some form of instant credit
verification. Such verification
is forthcoming in a newly in
vented machine which can read
most credit cards. This ma
chine — which is smaller than a
cash register and bigger than a
lunch box — may be on its way
to changing your buying habits
forever.
Not only will it save the con
sumer and merchant millions
of dollars, declare the check
book null and void, it may even
someday provide a key to turn
ing on an international com
mon market of exchange.
The machine is such a good
idea, in fact, that people
thought of it a long time ago. No
one bothered to produce it,
however, because of the pro
hibitive cost.
That is, no one could produce
a low-cost reader until John H.
Humphrey came along.
“The only reason I invented
it is because I didn’t know
enough to know it couldn’t be
done,” Humphrey said.
The gray-haired, jargonless
engineer-inventor, who favors
afternoons on the golf course
almost as much as “tinkering
around in his garage,” told a
“last laugh” story about the
days when he was trying to
acquire backing for the reader.
After a lengthy and what he
thought was impressive
presentation to a group of
executives from a big cash
register company, Humphrey
received kudos from all but one
— the young, “third-genera
tion” heir and president of the
company.
“If IBM can t do it,” the
young president said, “and,
NCR can’t do it, what makes
you think some little guy in a
garage can do it?”
The taunt was typical, but
Humphrey prevailed.
“I guess it goes to show there
is still room for the entrepre
neur-inventor,” he said, his
face breaking with a grin.
“Those big million-dollar think
tanks don’t have a monopoly on
all the ideas.”
The firm which gave credit to
Humphrey and bought the idea
lock, stock and inventor is Her
cules Inc., a chemical company
out of Wilmington, Del.
Its wholly owned subsidiary,
Data Source Corp., was formed
three years ago to develop and
manufacture source data auto
mation systems and equipment
in Los Angeles.
Humphrey’s experience
ranges from bachelor of sci
ence and engineering from the
University of Michigan, to
sales at Burroughs, Inc. (“the
IBM of the 1930 s”), to invention
of the first data collection ter
minal which used a forerunner
of today’s credit cards, to vice
president of Dashew Business
Machines where he initiated
systems using embossed credit
cards and the first electric im
printers for all national travel
and entertainment companies,
several banks, hospitals, auto
manufacturers and petroleum
companies.
But, every inventor’s dream
is to create something every
body needs. And, Humphrey’s
reader may someday fulfill
that universal demand.
At present it is making a lot
of service station owners happy
in Atlanta, Ga. Soon to be
happy are restaurant owners,
department stores, merchants
and banks — not only in
Atlanta, but all over the coun
try.
But, as the company pre
pares to invade Chicago, Phila
delphia and Los Angeles with
its credit card reading ma
chines, Humphrey finds him-,
self a little bit on the defensive.
He finds that he is dealing
with a very delicate com
modity. People’s honesty.
“People seem to feel I’ve in
vented something to stop
crooks,” Humphrey said. “But
that is far and away not the sole
reason for the reader. The ma
jority of the people are honest.
This thing is for them.”
Humphrey believes that
many consumers needlessly
experience a sense of “guilty
until proved honest” when
making a purchase of more
than sls or $25.
“Often it’s the interminable
delay,” Humphrey said. “Tele
phones get tied up or any num
ber of things can happen.”
Though the same credit
checks will be made, the speed
of the transaction will be such
that any concern on the con
sumer’s behalf will be cured al
most instantly — unless, of
course, the credit is shady,
overextended or the card is
stolen.
To verify a credit purchase,
the merchant merely enters the
purchase amount and inserts
the card into a slot on the top of
the credit terminal. The ter
minal automatically “talks” to
the computer and signals an
answer.
SHOWBEAT
Cronyn is at new
stage in career
Ten Ji
By DICK KLEINER
HOLLYWOOD—(NEA)—It used to be that Broadway
actors sneered at California. Today they come out here,
more and more, to work on the stage. Hume Cronyn is
here now. appearing at the Music Center in a fine re
vival of “The Caine Mutiny Court Martial.”
“The theater is changing,” Cronyn says. “The de
centralizing process is continuing. If an actor wants to
act on the stage, he must leave New York. Unless you
are a musical comedy actor, you can’t make a living in
New York. You must go to Stratford. Ontario, or to Min
neapolis or come out here.”
Cronyn has appeared in four productions in Los An
geles since his last New York appearance, which was
in 1967.
In the interim, he has made some movies and TV shows,
and, more and more, he’s leaning in that direction.
“The theater today,” he says, "has no interest in tak
ing up unusual or timely or provocative themes. That
seems to be the province of films at the moment. And
that makes it tragic for those of us who prefer the vine
yard of the stage.”
Cronyn did one television series, in 1954 —“or was
it ’ss?”—called The Marriage. It was based on the big
stage success enjoyed by him and his wife, Jessica
Tandy. “The Fourposter,” and they did it together.
“The Marriage was a hit,” he says, “but we only did
seven of them. And we turned down fantastic offers to
continue. Jessie didn’t want to go on. I have no regrets,
but we probably would be rich today if we’d gone on.
"I’d do a series now, if a good one came along that I
could do in the same way Jimmy Stewart and Hank
Fonda do theirs, getting all their work done in four
months."
It has been a hard year for the Cronyns, the one that
just ended. Hume lost his eye, to begin with.
“I’m getting used to one eye,” he says. “I mastered
depth perception after dropping a few glasses when I
misjudged were the coffee table was.”
And then Jessica had a cataract operation. And,
finally, he was back in surgery for a hernia operation,
which he attributes to overacting.
“When I did 'Hadrian VII,’ ” he says, “I had a scene
in which I had to retch. After doing it for many months,
the hernia developed.”
But now—knock wood—all that is past, and he’s
looking forward to his Broadway return. He’s going
into a play called “Promenade All,” with Eli Wallach
and Anne Jackson. The three of them toured with it last
summer and it seemed to please the audiences, but New
York, of course, is a different thing, and he has his
fingers crossed.
"Promenade All” will be the first production involving
members of a new group Cronyn was instrumental in
forming. It’s called LARC and the initials stand for
Loose Actors Revolving Company, but it has nothing to
do with their morals.
As Cronyn explains it, LARC includes some 30 fine
actors—including Cronyn, George C. Scott, Dustin Hoff
man, Jon Voight and Maureen Stapleton—and their aim
is to provide work for each other.
If “Promenade All” is a success, Cronyn says, he’ll be
able to take a 10-week vacation in the summer, and
bring in one of the LARC members—possibly Fritz
Weaver—to fill in for him.
He wants those 10 weeks. He and his wife have just
bought a new home in Pound Ridge, in northern West
chester County, New York, and they haven’t had a
chance to fix it up.
“We just had to move out of the city,” he says. “New
York has gotten too rough and violent.”
(NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN.)
When the card is inserted, the
optical device invented by
Humphrey called a “read
head” is activated.
The raised numbering on the
credit card is automatically
scanned as the card passes
over to the read head. Each
digit is optically read by photo
transistors, which convert re
sulting variations in light en
ergy into electrical signals.
The electrical signals are
then amplified and transmitted
over standard telephone lines
to the computer data bank
where customer and credit
card information is stored.
The computer then tells the
merchant the appropriate in
formation.