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Portrait of Ray Tomlinson

Ray Tomlinson

Ray Tomlinson was an American computer programmer who implemented the first email system on the ARPANET in…

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Ray Tomlinson

Hello! My name is Ray Tomlinson. When I was a little boy, I loved to see how things worked. I would take old radios and clocks apart and then try to put them back together again. It was like solving a fun puzzle! This love for puzzles and machines stayed with me as I grew up.

When I was a grown-up, I got to work with giant computers. They were as big as a room! These computers could talk to other computers in the same building, but not to computers far away. I had an idea! What if we could send a message from one computer to another, just like sending a letter? I needed a special symbol to connect a person's name with their computer's name. I looked at the keyboard and chose this one: @. In 1971, I used it to send the very first email message.

My little idea grew and grew. Now, people all over the world use email to send notes, pictures, and hellos to their friends and family. I lived to be 74 years old. Every time you see the @ symbol in an email address, you can remember the fun puzzle I helped solve to connect the world.

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About

Ray Tomlinson was an American computer programmer who implemented the first email system on the ARPANET in 1971 and is credited with developing the first networked email system and selecting the '@' symbol for email addresses.

Born 1941 CE
Graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 1963 CE
Began work at BBN 1967 CE
Invented Email 1971 CE
Died 2016 CE

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Ray Tomlinson
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