The @ has been "inducted into the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, which cited its modern use as an example of “elegance, economy, intellectual transparency, and a sense of the possible future directions that are embedded in the arts of our time.” Wow! All that for a symbol that's called the snail by Italians and monkey tail by the Dutch. The September 2012 Smithsonian magazine had an interesting history of this symbol.
There are different theories about the symbol's origin. In 1536 a Florentine merchant, Francesco Lapi, used @ to denote units of wine shipped in large clay jars. This was the first documented use of the symbol.
In 1971 computer scientist Ray Tomlinson was trying to figure out how to "connect people who programmed computers with one another. At that time, each programmer was typically connected to a particular mainframe machine via a phone connection and a teletype machine - basically a keyboard with a built-in printer. But these computers weren't connected to one another." Tomlinson worked for BNN Technologies which was hired by the US government to develop Arpanet, "a forerunner of the Internet."
Tomlinson had to determine how to "address a message created by one person and sent through Arpanet to someone at a different computer. The address needed an individual's name... as well as the name of the computer..." There needed to be a symbol separating the two parts of the address. The symbol had to be one that wasn't already widely used in programs and operating systems. Looking at his Model 33 teletype, Tomlinson noticed the @. He sent himself an email from one teletype addressed to another teletype in the same room. It worked - the rest is history.
Tomlinson still works for that company, BNN Technologies. He doesn't remember the contents of that first email.
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