Marking 40-year anniversary of Sweden’s first e-mail

The Digital DECwriter III terminal was discovered in a storage room at the Enea headquarters and is a reminder of the company’s pioneering spirit.

“Sweden is one of the world's leading digital innovation hubs and it is great that this historic e-mail terminal is now put on display by the museum," says Stephanie Huf, Chief Marketing Officer at Enea. "Today our business is about making the world’s communications safer and more efficient. Our software optimises huge volumes traffic while improving the user-experience, and our firewalls secure many mobile networks and protect billions of messages.”

An entire generation has grown up taking e-mail, the Internet, and mobile communications for granted, and essential services such as banking, education, and shopping all depend on these technologies. The historic e-mail symbolised the dawn of this new era but is a stark contrast to today’s rich multimedia emoji-laden messages. It was very straight forward and curiously referred to a computer called Yoorp, whose true identity still remains a mystery:

Subject: Hello

You are now hooked to the mcvax. This is just a test. Reply, we will be calling you again soon!

Ignore any references to a machine called "yoorp", it is just a test. Mail should go to mcvax!….".

Regards, Jim McKie. (mcvax!jim).

At the museum, the e-mail terminal will be part of the 'Subject: Hello' exhibition that captures the development of the Swedish telecom industry and takes its name from the very same e-mail. It was sent from the Mathematic Centre in Amsterdam to Enea employee Björn Eriksen on April 7, 1983, at 2:02:08pm and a replica has been produced for the exhibit.

“The terminal is a significant object and symbolises the shift to new ways of communicating through the computer with first e-mail, and later through a publicly accessible web,” says Peter Du Rietz, Curator at the Museum of Science and Technology. “We do not have many significant objects from this shift, and we are grateful that Enea now chooses to donate this object to our collections.”

An official handover ceremony will take place at the museum on October 19 (see details below). The event is open to the general public and will celebrate the history of telecommunication in Sweden as well as the contribution of local industry players, including the significant role Enea has played in this evolution.

Details of Handover Ceremony

Venue:   Museum of Science and Technology

               Museivägen 7, Stockholm

Date:     October 19

Time:     6.00pm