Did My Brother Invent E-Mail With Tom Van Vleck?
author, with Errol Morris, 2011–2012
Originally built and co-bylined for Errol Morris's New York Times series about his brother and the invention of electronic mail, this 1965 CTSS terminal has been restored here and is playable again.
Covered in The New York Times WBUR MIT Alumni Association kottke.org High Tech History Multicians The Real Paul Jones Ruffle
In 1965 Tom Van Vleck and Noel Morris wrote a program called MAIL so they could leave each other notes on a shared mainframe. Errol Morris, Noel’s brother, wrote a five-part series about it for the New York Times. Accompanying it is a reconstructed 1965 terminal that a reader can sit down at, write a program on, and send mail from.
The typewriter on screen is a real IBM. The piece ran as a New York Times interactive feature under a byline shared with Morris.