History of @ Symbol: When was the @ symbol created, know its history [TKB TECH]

Sometimes discoveries or inventions happen at the wrong time. For example tin opener. Which was made 50 years before tin was made. The @ symbol was discovered five centuries ago. But then you could not tag someone by using @. You could not use @ to like or dislike someone post. As far as we know, the @ sign was first added to email. Actually @ mark was initially used for Price Per Unit. Well there are three stories about this…

Lazy Monks search for @

In the 6th and 7th centuries, @ these marks were made by some lazy monks. The aim was to avoid having to copy endless manuscripts by hand. That’s why the Monks needed a shortcut. That’s why resorted to Latin words for shortcuts. Toward or at (ad) paired with a followed by a d like a long tail. Which is called @.

The result of shorthand of journalists was @

One story also says that it was first used by French journalists. They used (à) to shorten the at. to save time. Which gradually turned into @, because French journalists were not in the mood to write much at that time. But @ meant exactly the same as it is today.

First use in business letter

There is also a theory that the @ was first used in a document. Which is of 1536. It was a letter written by the Florentine businessman Francesco Lapi. He used it in shorthand for each at. Like- 14 lemons @ $10. He made @ by mixing a and e. This mark was not used again for centuries. Thankfully, computer scientist Ray Tomlinson used it in 1971.

Ray Tomlinson was given the task to send emails to computers connected to the Arpanet system. Find some way to do this. Arpanet was the father of the Internet. Or just say that the early internet which was not very advanced. Only a limited number of people could use it. Then Ray Tomlinson added the number or name of his computer by putting @ after the person’s name. Due to this the message started moving from one computer to another.

Ray Tomlinson told the Smithsonian that he was just looking for a symbol. Which has been used the least. After some research came to know about @. So he used it to send messages to his arpanet system. Since then, till now, @ has been living as a big base in the world of internet.