How long have people been sending emails?

Ray Tomlinson was an American computer scientist and the inventor of the email. The first email message was sent by him to himself in 1971 and it said something like “QWERTYIOP”. After the first message was successfully sent and received, he sent the second one to the rest of his group explaining how to send messages over network. Ray Tomlinson was the man who changed the way the world communicates.

It’s interesting that the very first computer which was invented in 1943 wasn’t initially designed for sending electronic mails (or emails). Its main goal was breaking the encrypted code used by German soldiers for passing the messages between themselves in times of the Second World War. This enormous machine was called \"Colossus\". The first portable computers, as we know them now, appeared about 30 years later.

The first computers were made for

• Calculating;
• Typing texts;
• Gathering and processing of data;
• Sending emails.

Nowadays despite the appearance of a large number of phone messengers, emails remain one of the main types of business communication because they allow to attach to the letter a large amount of data.

Possible attachments can include

• Photos;
• Videos;
• Excel tables and charts;
• PDF files and many others.

The very first email was sent by an American computer engineer to himself, whereas the input and output computers were standing next to each other. This significant event occured in 1971. So, it\'s possible to say, that since then people have been sending emails to each other for 46 years.