As soon as they could, the pair went to their local library, copied the information on the tones used by the phone company, and bought parts to make their analog tone generator.Īt first, they used a handheld tape recorder to replicate the necessary series of tones. This didn’t work perfectly, so Woz began working on a digital version of the Blue Box. The article ignited their youthful enthusiasm, and thoughts of what they could do with their newfound knowledge ran wild. He liked it so much that he barely made it halfway through the piece before he was on the phone to Jobs reading the whole thing to him. Woz, as his friends liked to call him, hung out with another kid from the neighborhood named Steve. Steve Jobs. Mom was right about her son enjoying the article. She thought that it was just the kind of thing that would interest her electronics-obsessed son. It told the story of the phreakers, the tones used by the phone company, and the creation and use of the little blue box.Ī mother in Berkley, California was thumbing through that particular issue of Esquire when she ran across the story. The story, “Secrets of the Little Blue Box” was published in a 1971 issue of the magazine. Over time, enough people caught wind of phone phreaking that it became big enough for Esquire magazine to write an article about it. Enter Jon Draperĭraper was one of the founding fathers of early phone hacking. He wasn’t the first phreaker, but he was the one who discovered that the 2600hz frequency of the Bo’sun whistle could be used to make free long-distance calls. People began to call him Cap’n Crunch.ĭraper created what came to be known as a “blue box.” Simply stated, this was an electronic device used to replicate tones used by the telephone company. In most cases, it was a case of youthful mischief. The phreakers might have used their whistles for practical reasons to save a bit of money on calls or stick it to the man (or woman, in this case) and bypass a major corporate structured system. For those who might not remember, long-distance calls used to be fairly expensive (think cell phone roaming charges). Using the right frequency, one could play a tone through your phone to bypass Ma Bell and make free long-distance phone calls. In later years, Bell would get smart and not make these tones available to the public for reasons that will soon become evident. A list of these tones was published periodically in the Bell System Technical Journal, which could be found in every library. Phone systems in those days worked utilizing a series of tones working on numerous frequencies. The timeframe we are looking at here is somewhere between the mid-60s and early 70s, so computer hacking wasn’t exactly an activity for your average joe. Phreakers were a group of underground hackers. That brings us to the next part of the story. One curious quality of the Cap’n Crunch Bo’sun whistle is that the tone it gives off is exactly 2600hz. The cereal company version was just a small plastic toy, but it helped change the world forever. Ship’s captains would traditionally use a Bo’sun whistle to signal various maritime commands and meal times. One such example is the Bo’sun whistle that used to be found in boxes of Cap’n Crunch. The sugar-laden cereals of my youth used to contain all kinds of wonderful plastic treasures. It may seem ridiculous, but if it weren’t for Cap’n Crunch cereal adding a toy whistle as a prize for kids, the two trillion dollar tech company known as Apple probably wouldn’t exist. The story of a toy, two teen geniuses, and a multi-trillion-dollar empire
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