Free Republic

Raymond Tomlinson, the inventor of modern email and selector of the "@" symbol, has died. He was 74. Raytheon Co., his employer, on Sunday confirmed his death; the details were not immediately available. Email existed in a limited capacity before Tomlinson in that electronic messages could be shared amid multiple people within a limited framework. But until his invention in 1971 of the first network person-to-person email, there was no way to send something to a specific person at a specific address. Here are five things to know about Tomlinson's invention: 1. The first email was sent on the ARPANET...

Raymond Tomlinson, the inventor of modern email and a technological leader, died Saturday. Raytheon Co., his employer, confirmed his death; the details were not immediately available. Email existed in a limited capacity before Tomlinson in that electronic messages could be shared amid multiple people within a limited framework. But until his invention in 1971 of the first network person-to-person email, there was no way to send something to a specific person at a specific address. Tomlinson wrote and sent the first email on the ARPANET system, a computer network that was created for the U.S. government that is considered a...