The Ouija Board: A Séance or a Machine That Turns Unconscious Motion into Prophecy?

On February 10, 1891, the United States Patent Office granted US446054A to Elijah J. Bond in Baltimore. The patent called the object a game. The board had letters, numbers, Yes and No, and a small piece of wood with feet and a pointer. Players rested their hands on it. The piece slid across the characters and formed an answer.

The same object was later sold as a way to question the dead, used in séances, and placed in horror films. The rumour did not begin with an ancient board. It began when a toy company registered an object that could turn tiny finger movements into a meaningful sentence.