Email pioneer and man behind the @ symbol Ray Tomlinson dies aged 74

Invented email by mistake when slacking off

The inventor of email and the internet's @ symbol, Ray Tomlinson, has died at the age of 74.

Tomlinson is credited with inventing email as we know it today in a programme for internet predecessor Arpanet.

The invention of email came about as Tomlinson looked for something useful to do with the Arpanet. He conducted much of his work as unsanctioned side-projects, the equivalent of Google's '20 percent' time today.

A Forbes profile even quotes him telling a contemporary colleague: "Don't tell anyone! This isn't what we're supposed to be working on."

His lasting legacy is the @ or 'at' symbol, which was fast becoming an archaic leftover from the days of pre-computer book-keeping. Tomlinson is said to have chosen it because it was doing nothing and its original meaning of 'at the rate of' was transferrable to 'at the server'.

The symbol has gone on to be used in a wide variety of contexts from programming to instant messaging.

Tomlinson (pictured above) worked at Raytheon in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He received a variety of plaudits for his work, including a George R Stibitz Computer Pioneer Award from the American Computer Museum, and an Eduard-Rhein Cultural Award, to name but two.

In later years, he lived in Lincoln where he raised miniature sheep. So far his family has released no statement and no cause of death has been announced.

Gmail, biggest email service in the world, gave its own tribute via Twitter, itself a huge beneficiary of the @ sign.

The @ sign, which still has no official single word for it, will forever act as a lasting memory to his subtle but vast influence on the world. Perhaps it's time it was named a 'Ray' sign. µ