Crunch Time

a joke than crack a book. The thing is, they're the ones you want to watch out for, because left to their own devices, they might wreak untold havoc or start their own companies. In the late nineteen fifties and early sixties, a new phenomenon was taking hold of america youth and in a surprising place, Ivy League universities. It was called phone freaking with a pH, and it was

an early form of hacking. Freakers as they were called, would find new and innovative ways to disrupt landline phone systems. For example, they might impersonate switchboard operators or telephone company employees while talking to unsuspecting customers. They would also pay attention to the tones that rang out when calls were routed or ended. Breakers with perfect pitch could then replicate those tones with a whistle to open a phone line

to connect themselves long distance for free. As time went on, however, those who couldn't whistle wound up relying on simple devices to create those sounds for them. One such device was made famous by former United States Air Force engineer John Draper. Draper had come into the possession of a Bosun's pipe, a kind of signaling tool used by the Navy to send commands to a ship's crew. But how did a member of the U. S. Air Force get hold of a Navy whistle? Why straight from a captain, of course,

Captain Crunch. The little plastic pipes were given away as prizes and boxes of cereal starting in the mid nineteen sixties. It didn't take long for Draper to discover a hidden secret about them, though. When he blew into the mouthpiece of his phone, the whistle made a perfect hurts tone, the exact frequency needed to take over a phone line on a T and T. Draper's little hack and the tool he used to do it, earned him the nickname Captain crunch and led to the creation of new technology

centered around bypassing onerous telephone company charges. They were called blue boxes, small electronic pads capable of generating the same tones as the serial toy they were based on. Phone freaking was not as widespread as computer hackiness today, but

it did spread pretty far and wide. Still, from its inception in the nineteen fifties all the way to the nineteen seventies, freaking hadn't caught on beyond pockets of enthusiasts who enjoyed pushing the limits of social and telephone engineering. But around the blue box would grow beyond its limited user group to a wider audience with the help of a couple of guys from California. Steve was in high school when he became best friends with a student at

nearby UC Berkeley. They spent much of their downtime tinkering around with electronics, and that's when Steve realized the widespread potential in a digitized blue box, not just as a nerdy hobby for board teenagers and college kids, that as a real business. So they reached out to John Draper and learned everything they could before building and selling their own blue boxes. Looking back, it was the start of

a legendary and lucrative partnership. Steve tried his hand at college after graduating high school, but realized after one semester it just wasn't for him, and so he dropped out. Instead, he got a job in the relatively new video game industry at a little company called Atari. He moved in with his girlfriend and even took a spiritual journey to India. Upon his return home, though, Atari presented him with a challenge.

They were working on a new arcade game called Breakout, and Steve was put in charge of building the circuit board. They even incentivized him by promising a larger bonus if he could reduce the boards size. There was just one problem. Steve couldn't really build circuit boards. In fact, he'd lied his way into the job at the company. He wasn't really an engineer at all, but his friend from UC

Berkeley sure was. With his help, Steve earned a whopping five thousand dollars for handing in a smaller, more efficient circuit board for the game. He told his friend that they'd only made seven hundred and gave him half just three fifty dollars, pocketing the rest for himself. Even when his friend eventually found out what Steve had done, though it didn't change their partnership. They soon went into business together again, designing their own circuit boards, oh and screens

and software. And if you haven't figured it out by now, our Steve was Steve Jobs, co founder of Apple Computer, and his friend, also a Steve Steve Wozniak or was. Together they helped build one of the most successful and influential companies in the world, and, thirty years after its founding, Jobs took the phone companies on one more time. This time though he traded in his blue box for a glass rectangle the beginning of a sensation that changed the

way we communicate forever. And that, my friends, is how Captain Crunch, in a roundabout sort of way, gave the world the iPhone. The ship had a name meant for greatness. It's hard to believe they were shooting for anything less when they christened the clippers ship Neptunes Car. A few people would have known that better than Mary Patton. After all, her husband was the ship's captain, and Ry had traveled with him on his successful voyages to San Francisco, China

and London. On those trips he had turned Neptune's car into a symbol of swift sailing. So in eighteen fifty six there were more than a few clients. New York merchants had machines and supplies ready for California gold mines, so Neptune's car was loaded with cargo and on the first of July the ship headed out to open sea. Again. Mary was on board, and this journey would be a long one, all the way from New York to San Francisco by way of the dangerous Cape Horn far to

the south. It was going to be a fifteen thousand mile trip. She might have been a quiet New Englander, but Mary was also educated, curious, and fiercely intelligence. On their earlier voyages, Mary's husband had taught her the art and science of navigation, measuring the son's angle and calculating the ship's position. She even turned out to be the quicker mathematician, and she watched him command the three dozen men on his crew as they pushed the tunes Car

to incredible speed. It's a good thing too, because their journey in eighteen fifty six would turn out to be a fateful one. To start with, there was trouble with the first mate, Mr Keeler. He'd been a last minute addition to their crew, and as the days rolled by, it became clear that he wasn't taking his work seriously. He slept through his watches, he ignored orders to furral and unfurrel sales. In fact, it became clear that he wasn't doing much of anything at all. Soon enough, Mary

and the rest of the crew would learn why. You see, Neptune's Car wasn't the only ship that had left New York that summer headed for San Francisco. Others had launched as well, and as you can guess, there were plenty of people who had placed bets on which ship would reach their destination first. It was something of a race, actually. Mr Keeler, though, thought he had an ace up his sleeve.

He bet against the Neptune's Car his own ship. He thought he could do enough to slow down the clipper and collect winnings on his return, but he got something else and stead. Mary's husband had him seized and thrown into the brig. It was only after that drama that the ship sailed into a massive storm. Wind and rain and powerful waves crashed against the ship for eight days straight. On the other side, the ship came through unscathed, but

Mary's husband wasn't as lucky. After the effort of surviving the storm, he collapsed. He was delirious and couldn't even stand. The crew said he had what they called brain fever. First, Mary ordered her thrashing, raving husband tied down to his bunk. She tried to nurse him back to health, but he didn't seem to respond, and with Mr Keeler locked up for his attempt to sabotage the journey, there was no

one in command, so that's when Mary stepped in. On top of nursing her sick husband, Mary was soon enough setting the ship's course. Working with the second mate, she had the crew working overtime, headed again for San Francisco. But that's where Mr. Keeler saw an opportunity. From his place in lock up, he scribbled and out that the crew brought to Mary. Think of the dangers, he wrote, think of the huge weights of responsibility. Wouldn't it just be easier if you let me out and let me

take control of the ship. Mary's response was brief. He had proved himself unfit for command, so he would stay below. Furious with Mary, Mr Keeler tried to rally the crew against her, but when Mary caught wind of the plot, she called the mates and sailors to the aft of the ship and she addressed them. They knew what had happened before, They knew what Mr Keeler had done, and they were beginning to sense Mary's medal as well. If they stood by her, she said she would get them

safely to San Francisco. Every single man in the weather beaten crew gave her their word they would stand by her. For weeks, Mary guided the Neptune's car through its treacherous voyage. They slipped through storms as they rounded Cape Horn, they dodged icebergs in the narrow passage. Mary held the crew together as they waited out duldrums, and when the clouds were too impenetrable for Mary to use her sextant, she

led them by dead reckoning. So it was under her firm hand that the ship, crew and cargo got back on course and reached San Francisco on November. When they neared the Golden Gate Bay, Mary personally took the helm and guided the ship to port. She had managed a crew of three dozen men and kept her husband alive through storm, sickness, and a failed insurrection. When she stepped off of Neptune's car, Mary told the company officers that she hadn't been able to change her clothes for fifty days.

She was happy to leave the vessel in their care and find herself and her husband a place to rest and recover. I can only imagine their dumbfounded looks as they agreed. It took some time for the enormity of Mary's achievement to hit home. She had commanded a clipper ship for fifty six days, and the newspapers at the time said she brought it into ports better than any of her competitors, not to mention that she beat all of them but one. By some accounts, this made her

the first woman to command an American merchant vessel. But there are a couple more things that make her achievements even more remarkable. First, when they left New York that July, Mary was already four months pregnant. And second, when Mary Patton took command of Neptune's car, she was just nineteen years old. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast

dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.