During the civil war in America that took a toll on thousands of lives, several people turned to spiritualism in hopes to contact the other side. Families held table turning parties and séances where people would place hands on a table where questions were asked and alphabets called out in hopes of acquiring an answer from spirits present. The table would supposedly turn when a spirit wanted a specific letter. Many people indulged in such activities as it wasn’t considered occult in nature. Even the wife of President Abraham Lincoln, Mary Lincoln was reported to have conducted séances after losing her 11-year-old son to fever. Scandals involving charlatans and fake medium saw a gradual decline in the practice.
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This is an intriguing among facts about the Ouija Board. A common misconception implies that the name of the Ouija board is a combination for “yes “in French and German but that is not true. The Ouija board’s first patent was by the Kennard Novelty Company in 1890 but it did not have a name for the board. It was during a session involving the owner of the patent Elijah Bond, his sister in law Helen Peters (an established medium) and friends that the board got its name. The party asked the board what it wanted to be named and the word OUIJA was spelt out by the board. When asked what it meant, it replied through letters, “Good Luck”.
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Robert Murch a historian who studied the Ouija Board for 20 years claimed that the board was tried, tested and approved by the US patent office which turned out to be true. Elijah Bond accompanied by his lawyer Peters from Baltimore and owners of the company held a demonstration for the Patent officer whose name was withheld from the group. He asked the board to spell out his last name which it did and correctly at that.
The officer was visibly shocked and left the room white-faced and shaken. He awarded the patent soon after. But!! One fact also needs to be put forward that Bond himself was a practicing patent agent who could have known the name.
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