The mystery over the @ sign
Posted: 08 Mar 2016, 10:32The @ character is the symbol of the internet age, crucial for emails and social networking. But no-one really knows where it came from, writes Claire Bates.
The "at sign" was once an obscure symbol known only to book-keepers. That changed thanks to Ray Tomlinson, the man widely regarded as the inventor of the email.
He plucked it from his keyboard in 1971 to go between the user name and destination address when sending a message between two computers in his office. Tomlinson chose @ because it was then rarely used in computing, so wouldn't confuse early programs or operating systems. In a happy coincidence, the English name of the symbol was already "at".
"The @ symbol appeared on typewriters before the end of the 19th Century," says Keith Houston, author of Shady Characters: Secret Life of Punctuation. "It seemed to be a general symbol that meant to readers 'this is this many items at this price'. It didn't have a use beyond this."
As typewriters had it, so did the first proper keyboards for computers.
"The @ symbol made it on to keyboards because it was a business tool and had a business use," says Houston.
Those business users understood it as a symbol to indicate unit price eg 12 batteries @ £1 each.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35744456
The "at sign" was once an obscure symbol known only to book-keepers. That changed thanks to Ray Tomlinson, the man widely regarded as the inventor of the email.
He plucked it from his keyboard in 1971 to go between the user name and destination address when sending a message between two computers in his office. Tomlinson chose @ because it was then rarely used in computing, so wouldn't confuse early programs or operating systems. In a happy coincidence, the English name of the symbol was already "at".
"The @ symbol appeared on typewriters before the end of the 19th Century," says Keith Houston, author of Shady Characters: Secret Life of Punctuation. "It seemed to be a general symbol that meant to readers 'this is this many items at this price'. It didn't have a use beyond this."
As typewriters had it, so did the first proper keyboards for computers.
"The @ symbol made it on to keyboards because it was a business tool and had a business use," says Houston.
Those business users understood it as a symbol to indicate unit price eg 12 batteries @ £1 each.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35744456