![]() Draper became known for using it, and gave himself the nickname “Captain Crunch.” He even built devices, called “blue boxes,” to replicate that tone and other useful ones. ![]() co-founder Steve Wozniak’s words, “seize a phone line.” Though many phreakers used instruments for the same purpose, the mass-produced whistle became iconic. The whistle easily played at 2600Hz, the perfect tone to, in Apple Inc. These early hackers played certain tones through their telephones to bypass AT&T’s analog system and get free long-distance phone calls.ĭraper heard about the whistle from other phreakers. Draper was part of an underground culture that predated hacking as we know it: phone phreaks. One fell into the hands of John Draper, a former U.S. Meant to replicate the whistles used by sailing officials (boatswains) to signal mealtimes or commands, the multicolored whistles came along with boxes of Cap’n Crunch starting in the mid-1960s. Only one cereal box toy has that distinction: the Cap’n Crunch Bo’sun whistle. From movie tie-in toys to video games on CD-ROM (remember Chex Quest?), cereal box baubles tend to be momentarily thrilling and then quickly forgotten. Photo courtesy of Jeff DilbertĬereal companies have long used box prizes as an inducement for children to nag parents into buying sugary breakfast food. See also The Classic Breakfast Cereal Timeline.The Cap’n Crunch Bo’sun Whistle, in all its glory. The blue box wasn’t the last gadget the phone phreaks community made, and this was the first form of “hacking” which later became internet hacking. There were also a group of blind phreakers, who, it is claimed, had perfect pitch and could produce this tone themselves by whistling into the phone. Cap’n Crunch Bosun Whistle © 1971markus via WikimediaĪlthough John Draper is the subject of the legend, he is not the first person to realize that a 2600 Hz tone could be used to get free calls. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs are said to have made their own bluebox before they made the Apple computer and John Draper was a big technical adviser to them and others, called “phone phreaks.” He also became one of the first Apple employees. A box (the first one discovered was blue) was used to get free long-distance and international calls using 800 numbers, employing not only the 2600 Hz tone but a series of tones called “multifrequency” or MF tones. This practice gave rise to what was called blueboxing, which was the first automated tool fraud technique used to defraud phone companies. See also: What Was Cap’n Crunch’s Full Name? The technical reason for this is beyond my understanding (I’m just regurgitating my research), but it has something to do with sending the tone down a long-distance trunk, which would terminate the call, and then seize another trunk for reuse once the tone stopped. In reality, the line on the other end would remain open, allowing you to continue the call without being charged for it. At least, it would terminate the call as far as AT&T knew. If you dialed a long distance number and then blew the whistle into the mouthpiece, this tone would terminate the call. He is said to have discovered that the whistle, when you blew it, produced a nearly precise 2600 Hz tone. The whistle, at some point, gave rise to the famous legend of John Draper, a.K.a the hacker Captain Crunch. ![]() One famous free prize was a toy whistle called a bosun’s whistle. They’d have comic books and all sorts of great things. As much as the TV cartoons influenced my devotion to Cap’n Crunch - which has waned but never truly wilted - there were also free prizes in the boxes which were a bit more high-quality (to a kid’s mind) than other cereal-box prizes.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |