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Black Box, circa 1972

William Claxton1971/1973

The Henry Ford

The Henry Ford
Dearborn, MI, United States

Black boxes connected to home telephones, allowing callers to bypass long-distance charges. These illegal devices tricked automated telephone exchanges into believing no one answered the receiving end of the call. In the 1960s, notorious "phone phreakers" infiltrated telephone networks; their actions were comparable to modern-day hackers. William Claxton built this box to connect with his brother, living 300 miles away.

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  • Title: Black Box, circa 1972
  • Creator: Claxton, William
  • Date Created: 1971/1973
  • Location: United States, California, Arcata, United States, California, Berkeley
  • Subject Keywords: Claxton, William, Claxton, David, Communication, Hacking, Telephones, Black box, Electronic devices, Electronics, Cases (Containers), Instructions (Document genre)
  • Type: Objects
  • Contributor: The Henry Ford
  • Original Source: Digital Collections
  • Object Name: Electronic device
  • Object ID: 2017.151.3
  • Image ID: THF170555
  • Field: Telecommunications
  • Credit: From the Collections of The Henry Ford.
The Henry Ford

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