A 19th Century Hack
The story of two brothers in 19th century France, who exploited a mechanical telegraph system to their own ends.
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Show Notes
What was the world’s first telecommunications hack? Some sort of electronic banking theft in the 80s? Perhaps it was the “phone breaks” of the 1960s, who used tricks to make calls for free? Or the scientific hooligans who hacked Marconi’s wireless? Well, according to Tom Standage, Deputy Editor of The Economist, you have to go back even further than that. To 19th-century France, and a new technology called the mechanical telegraph.