@ Where'd that come from?

Ever wonder where the @ symbol came from?  First used in 1536 a Florentine merchant used it to quantify units of wine shipped in clay containers known as amphorae.  This little used character - up until recent history with the advent of the everyday commodity known as the internet - resided quietly and rather ignored for the most part until Ray Tomlinson a scientist at BNN Technologies in Cabridge Massachuseets needed a little used character so he could send a messaged to another computer through a network called Arpanet (the predecessor to the internet). 

  "The address needed an individual's name, he reasoned, as well as the name of the computer which might service many users.   ... Tomlinson's eyese fell on the @ poised above "P" on his Model 33 teletype"  - Smithsonian September 2012