# Perfect Pitch and touch tone phones. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [February 25, 2008, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-pitch-and-touch-tone-phones/439117 "2008-02-25T20:32:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tobiah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/278dde/32.png) [@tobiah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tobiah)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-pitch-and-touch-tone-phones/439117/1 "2008-02-25T20:32:12Z")
In [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4\_236b.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_236b.html) Cecil states that there was an individual who could whistle into a telephone and cause it to ‘dial’ a number by matching the pitches that a touch tone telephone generates. Although I have heard this story many times, I find it quite difficult to believe; touch tones are built out of two different frequencies for each number. The system is called Dual Tone Multi Frequency, or DTMF: > **[Dual-tone multi-frequency signaling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-tone_multi-frequency)** > > Dual-tone multi-frequency signaling (DTMF) is a telecommunication signaling system using the voice-frequency band over telephone lines between telephone equipment and other communications devices and switching centers. DTMF was first developed in the Bell System in the United States, and became known under the trademark Touch-Tone for use in push-button telephones supplied to telephone customers, starting in 1963. DTMF is standardized as ITU-T Recommendation Q.23. It is also known in the U Touch... So, unless this fellow had a partner who also had perfect pitch, it would seem that dialing with a whistle would be a distinct impossibility. ---
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-pitch-and-touch-tone-phones/439117/2 "2008-02-25T21:46:18Z")
I don’t think he actually whistled the touch tone tones. > [@](#): > > [At 7, with his perfectly pitched ear, he heard through the receiver the tone that controlled long-distance connections, 2,600 cycles per second. “I started whistling along with it,” he said, “and all of a sudden the circuit cut off, and I did it again, and it cut off again. And gradually . . . I figured out — back in the mid-’50s — just how to do it.](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/magazine/30joybubbles-t.html?ex=1356670800&en=715232e22c516267&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss) [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joybubbles) has and article about him too. I was hoping someone else might come along with a better description. I don’t know how he did it, but it sure looks like he did. > [@](#): > > [H]e was given the nickname “Whistler,” due to his ability to place free long-distance phone calls with his whistle. He was disciplined by the university… Tennessee, law enforcement raided his house. He was charged with malicious mischief and given a suspended sentence and quickly abandoned phreaking, although was able to whistle 2600 hertz throughout his life. ---
**Author:** ![mwbrooks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@mwbrooks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mwbrooks)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-pitch-and-touch-tone-phones/439117/3 "2008-02-26T23:58:26Z")
[QUOTE=SiXSwordS] I don’t think he actually whistled the touch tone tones. [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joybubbles) has and article about him too. I was hoping someone else might come along with a better description. I don’t know how he did it, but it sure looks like he did. [/QUOTE] There’s a more detailed article [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_box_%28phreaking%29). And more “whistler” background story in the [John Draper](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Draper) entry. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-pitch-and-touch-tone-phones/439117/4 "2008-02-28T01:19:39Z")
I was going to say there are some people who can sing two pitches at once, but then it him me that he was WHISTLING. The only thing I can think of is that the hollow sound whistling makes could’ve “fooled” the phone by picking up multiple parts of the overtones used and registered the two correct pitches (but it would’ve needed to be very. very precise even for PP standards imo). THis also sounds like something that would be show on next months Wetten dass… ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-pitch-and-touch-tone-phones/439117/5 "2008-02-28T14:03:44Z")
As the NYT story has it, I’d always heard it could be done with a Cap’n Crunch giveaway whistle. I always liked the thought that such a tiny, innocuous, playful piece of plastic could bring mighty Ma Bell to her knees. ---
**Author:** ![mwbrooks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@mwbrooks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mwbrooks)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-pitch-and-touch-tone-phones/439117/6 "2008-02-28T15:38:04Z")
[QUOTE=Jragon] I was going to say there are some people who can sing two pitches at once, but then it him me that he was WHISTLING. The only thing I can think of is that the hollow sound whistling makes could’ve “fooled” the phone by picking up multiple parts of the overtones used and registered the two correct pitches (but it would’ve needed to be very. very precise even for PP standards imo). [/QUOTE] Cecil actually misspoke when he said touch tone. The “whistler” note was a single 2600 Hz tone used to gain access to the trunk line. Dual tones were also needed, but not the same frequencies as Touch Tones, so you still needed some extra equipment to do all the cool stuff. BTW: It is possible to whistle and hum at the same time. I do it sometimes to freak out my dog. I’d be really impressed if someone could match a dual-tone code that way, though. I guess you could whistle one note and play the other on some instrument. ---
**Author:** ![joazito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@joazito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joazito)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-pitch-and-touch-tone-phones/439117/7 "2008-02-28T17:56:21Z")
[QUOTE=mwbrooks] BTW: It is possible to whistle and hum at the same time. I do it sometimes to freak out my dog. [/QUOTE] How the hell do you do that? Can we get a youtube video? ---
**Author:** ![mwbrooks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@mwbrooks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mwbrooks)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-pitch-and-touch-tone-phones/439117/8 "2008-02-28T20:47:39Z")
[QUOTE=joazito] How the hell do you do that? Can we get a youtube video? [/QUOTE] Damfino. I’m at work now so I’m reluctant to analyze it. (Open cubicles, y’know.) I guess it’s not really humming, because my lips obviously aren’t closed when I do it. Try starting a fairly constrained lip-whistle and then see if you can get your vocal chords beating. It seems to take more air than either a whistle or a hum normally does. There might be constraints about the tone combinations you can hit. I _don’t_ have perfect pitch, so I can’t tell what I’m getting. Probably something awful. I never tried to do anything musical with it, so I don’t consider it entertaining enough for YouTube (I guess I set a higher standard than some). If you want to see/hear it, I think this is what Kirk and the others are doing in the Star Trek episode “I, Mudd” when they make fake phaser noises as part of their effort to confuse the androids. I’ll let you guys guess whether I’m an inveterate Trekkie or just that old. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-pitch-and-touch-tone-phones/439117/9 "2008-02-28T21:03:29Z")
[QUOTE=mwbrooks] …I’ll let you guys guess whether I’m an inveterate Trekkie or just that old. [/QUOTE] Why not both? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/perfect-pitch-and-touch-tone-phones/439117/10 "2008-02-28T21:47:36Z")
I can do a hissy kind of “whistle” in thirds over less than an octave. It’s nowhere near the quality that would fool the phone system or impress anyone and the thirds are barely discernable, but they’re there. It’s not a pursed-lip whistle (but I can do that, too, and much better).