E-MAIL

electronic mail, called e-mail was started in the late 1960's by the armed forces of the United States of America. The army or military officers were looking for a way that communications could be carried out in the event of a large-scale nuclear war. They needed a system would be very decentralized, reliable and fast in case central institutions were destroyed. They came up with e-mail.

In early 1970's, e-mail was limited to the US military, defense contractors and universities doing defence research. By the 1970's it had begun to spread more broadly within university communities. By the 1980's, academies in a number of university disciplines were using e-mail for professional collaboration.The early 1990'ssaw an exlpotion of the use of e-mail and other computer networkin g tools for a wide range of professional, academic and personal purposes. Whereas a few thousand people were using e-mail in 1980, it was estimated that in 2000, more then 25 million people throughout the world were using it.

E-mail is a wey of sending a message from one computer to one or more computrs around the world. First, you writedown the e-mail address of the person you're sending the message to. Then you compose the message, either by writing it directly in a special e-mail software program or by writing it first in a word-processing program, then transfering it into the e-mail software. You push a button to issue a simple command to send the message. The computer system you're connected to will break the message up into tiny pieces and send them electronically to the distination, usually over common telephone lines. The pieces might travel through different routes to various computers on the way. Then, usually within two or three minutes, the pieces will all arive at their distination, where
he receiving computer will re-assemble them into a message that can be read. The person receiving the message can then log into his or her computer account at a convenient time and read the mail.