Who invented email?

Ray Tomlinson, a computer engineer for BBN, invented email.  He was part of the company hired by the U.S. government to set up the first Internet. In 1971, the company used a certain program on one computer to leave messages for each other.  Ray Tomlinson used a file transfer to adapt the program so that messages could be sent to any computer on the network.  He used the "@" symbol to indicate which computer needed to receive the message.  After inventing it, he commented that "it seemed like a good idea.  No one was asking for email."