Ray Tomlinson created and sent the first email in 1971 via ARPANET (an early precursor to the Internet). This email message served as a test message between two computers connected via ARPANET.
Although there remains some debate as to who invented email (some attribute it to Ayyadurai), email has undergone many innovations and improvements over time.
The First Message
Email has long been one of the primary forms of electronic communication, yet few realize its long history. Email was initially developed as a method to transmit electronic messages between computers that belonged to ARPANET (an early precursor of today's Internet) network. Ray Tomlinson is widely considered the pioneer behind modern email, creating a program which allowed users to send electronic mail messages across ARPANET using "@" symbol addresses as recipient IDs.
By 1976, 75% of ARPANET traffic consisted of email messages; thus triggering the need for software that could manage them effectively. Stephen Lukasik served as Director of ARPANET from 1971-1975 and strongly encouraged email usage - one of its founding principles - which became widespread outside ARPANET networks as more people started sending mail around with messages for storage or organization within various organizations.
Apple released a program called Message Pad that allowed Mac OS users to send email. A few years later, CompuServe became the first commercial online service with email as an included feature - other services quickly followed suit and by the 1990s email was widely known and in widespread usage.
At this point, the Internet became mainstream and email soon followed suit, becoming one of the main modes of communication and even being included as a term in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1999. Email's popularity continued to soar into the late 90s where services like Hotmail and Yahoo provided free webmail services for webmail accounts.
Today, almost any computer or mobile device can access and read email; however, email truly took off in the early 2000s when used mainly by businesses and people who had home Internet connections. That was when its now iconic "you've got mail" sound effect began being heard; over time this phrase became synonymous with email as we know it today.
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Ray Tomlinson
Email has become an integral part of life for billions around the world, used for everything from scheduling meetings and payments, receiving progress reports for children's homework assignments and sending confidential documents. But where did this form of communication originate? In this blog we'll take a look back at its roots since its invention in 1971 up until today when we use email daily.
Ray Tomlinson was the first ever person to send an electronic message, using ARPANET (which would eventually become the Internet). In 1971 he created a program that allowed users to leave messages for others via ARPANET computers; though not exactly what we recognize today as email, it marked an important advance.
Tomlinson made history when he combined two smaller programs to develop the first network email system: Sndmsg for message sending and Cpynet for file transfer were combined into his invention; these two programs allowed people on ARPANET networks to exchange emails between each other via these two programs, using @ symbols as separators between user names and computer addresses - which really took off!
From there, email rapidly flourished through the 1970s and 80s, becoming an indispensable business and personal communication tool by the 1990s. By then, most people used email on a regular basis for everyday purposes and Elwood Edwards recorded his infamous "You Have Mail" notification message in his living room.
Ray Tomlinson, who passed away at 74 in 2016 aged pioneer in technology. His achievements included being honored with induction into the Internet Hall of Fame and his email being displayed at New York Museum of Modern Art as an artwork with a sheep graphic and "@". Thanks to him millions of people can stay in contact across the globe through email; making our world smaller as a result.
ARPANET
In the 1970s, scientists at ARPANET began using email as a means to share technical reports and information - this need is what helped develop it into what we know today as email.
Early systems were computer-based, meaning messages could only be left for people using the same system. ARPANET introduced emailing between computers on its network - making communication much simpler - although recipients still needed to be online simultaneously. Ray Tomlinson then developed software which allowed users to leave messages for other people even if they weren't currently online on one particular computer; this first email software also featured what would later become the @ symbol!
Email's simple but efficient method for sending messages to recipients who aren't currently using the same computer has enabled people to conduct email conversations across a vast number of servers - making email one of the world's most widely-used forms of communication.
Early computers were connected by wires and modems to exchange digital data. Lawrence Roberts created an experimental link between two computers in 1965 using IBM punch cards which were read by a machine to convert holes into digital ones and zeroes before printing out on a dot matrix printer called DECwriter so humans could read it.
ARPANET quickly expanded and evolved as it quickly gained new members and computers were connected. In 1971, the Tenex team created a program which allowed computers connected to ARPANET to send each other messages, including including files from another computer as part of each message - this feature proved especially helpful to scientists sharing large files between computers. Furthermore, this spawned discussion groups, known as USENET.
By the 1990s, internet companies such as AOL had begun offering email services with user-friendly web interfaces; email was even added to Oxford English Dictionary in 1998! But soon thereafter spam became an increasing problem as marketers saw an opportunity to reach millions of people at little or no cost.
The Internet
Email may seem like a modern invention, but its roots go back much further. The first email system ever used at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1965 was known as MAILBOX; some years later ARPANET developed the program SNDMSG which allowed messages to be passed between computers by forwarding messages; it was like leaving notes for someone's desk!
As soon as the Internet was created it enabled long-distance connections between computers, and this saw electronic mail become widespread. One programmer named Ray Tomlinson is widely credited with pioneering our modern email system by developing ARPANET research computers so they could communicate among themselves; adding multiple recipient email capability; using @ symbol as part of internet protocol indicating which computer a message should go; later this became part of international emails protocols as a symbol identifying who intended receiving.
Once people were able to connect their home computers to the internet, email use quickly increased. Technology evolved over time as new devices and services made use of email services; by the mid to late 1970s software had been created specifically to manage emails more efficiently while commercial packages soon followed suit. By 2000, email users had skyrocketed, with most people possessing at least one address.
Today, email remains a critical form of global communication. More than 600 million people globally own email accounts and many of them use them regularly - it's hard to imagine life before email was available at our fingertips, but its development over the years is remarkable. Unfortunately there have been instances when some individuals exploited email to harass others or spread baseless conspiracies or negative news; but email also offers us powerful platforms through which to connect.
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