---
title: "Who is the father of email?"  
description: "Who is the father of email?"  
author: "UTKARSHA SINGHROUL"  
published: 2019-04-22  
canonical: https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/52010/who-is-the-father-of-email  
category: "computers and laptops"  
tags: ["email and im", "inventions"]  
reading_time: 2 minutes  

---

# Who is the father of email?

Who is the father of email?

## Answers

### Answer by Harshal Vispute

**Ray Tomlinson**, a bearded **[computer](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/93605/what-is-the-history-of-the-computer-generation) scientist**, was seated in front of **two giant computers** in a windowless room in **Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1971**, attempting to send the **world's first [email](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/93399/is-my-email-id-visible-at-mindstick)**[.](https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/93399/is-my-email-id-visible-at-mindstick) \
He'd been **coding and debugging for hours**, attempting in vain to send a message from one **cabinet-sized computer to another.** \
He tried again, this time using a teletype keyboard to type his name: **TOMLINSON**. The **@ symbol** – a rarely used key he had picked as a separator – was followed by the name of the other computer. \
**Tomlinson** rolled his chair over to the teletype on the second machine and typed **TYPE MAILBOX** on the keyboard.\
\
There was **silence** for a little moment. The teletype then sprang to life with a rattling. **The first email in history had arrived.** **'The stuff was sitting there much like when you open your inbox now,'** Tomlinson added.\
\
**On March 5, 2016, Tomlinson, a principal engineer at Raytheon BBN Technologies, died. When he died, he was 74 years old.** \
The email program developed by **Tomlinson** transformed communications, dramatically altering how people and companies interact. People changed how they **shop, bank, and even remain in touch with friends and family**, whether they were **across town or on the other side of the world**, **new communication method**, which converted **businesses from global corporations to small businesses.** \
Email is used by an estimated **5.6 billion individuals** on the planet today. They transmit over **205 billion emails per day,** obliterating traditional time and space limitations. \
His initial email barely traveled **100 yards,** from a **computer called BBN-TENEXB** to a router elsewhere in the facility, then back to **BBN-TENEXA.** \


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Original Source: https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/52010/who-is-the-father-of-email

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