John T. Draper, also known as Captain Crunch (after Cap'n Crunch, the mascot of a breakfast cereal), was a phone phreaker.
He discovered that the yellow toy whistle found in the breakfast cereal Cap'n Crunch emitted (with slight modification) a tone at precisely 2600 hertz -- the same frequency that was used by AT&T long lines to indicate that a trunk line was ready and available to route a new call. This would effectively disconnect one end of the trunk, allowing the still connected side to enter an operator mode.
- "I don't do that. I don't do that anymore at all. And if I do it, I do it for one reason and one reason only. I'm learning about a system. The phone company is a System. A computer is a System, do you understand? If I do what I do, it is only to explore a system. Computers, systems, that's my bag. The phone company is nothing but a computer."
- -- From Secrets of the Little Blue Box by Ron Rosenbaum, Esquire Magazine (October 1971)
- -- From Secrets of the Little Blue Box by Ron Rosenbaum, Esquire Magazine (October 1971)
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