Those Evil Ouija Boards

HISTORY OF THE OUIJA BOARD
While automatic writing was being embraced by mediums, those who satisfied their curiosity about the spirit world in the "home circles" were also searching for a more efficient way to reach the other side than by rapping on tables.

In 1853, a French Spiritualist named M. Planchette (according the to the stories anyway -- it should be noted that "planchette" in French translates to "little plank", making this story a little dubious) invented a device that could do much more than tap on the table. The "planchette" was a small, heart-shaped table with pencils attached to its legs. Those who used it claimed that it operated by spirit force and ghosts were able to write out messages from beyond. The invention was often used by the mediums as a more elaborate form of automatic writing, but it really did not hold wide appeal for the general public.

However, a short time later, another invention would come along that could be used by everyone. No experience was required and no real psychic skills were needed. This new device would revolutionize the Spiritualist movement and have an impact that still resounds today. The Ouija board was born.

Shortly after the planchette came to America, a cabinet and coffin maker from Maryland named E.C. Reiche created a new method of communicating with the dead. He devised a wooden lap tray with the letters of the alphabet arranged in two lines across the center of the board. Below these letters, he placed the numbers 1-10 and the words YES and NO in each lower corner of the board. He used the planchette with his board but removed the pencil tips and placed wooden pegs on the bottom of it. In this way, the planchette was free to move about the board.

It was always believed that Reiche named his board the "Ouija" because the name represented the French and German words for "yes" (oui and ja) but this was not the case. He named it that because he believed that the word "Ouija" was actually Egyptian for luck. Needless to say, it's not, but since he claimed to receive the word from a spirit on the board, the name stuck.

But Reiche was more interested in spirits than making money and he sold the invention to his friend, Charles Kennard, who soon founded the Kennard Novelty Co. with borrowed money and began producing the first commercial Ouija boards around 1886. The first patent for a "talking board" was filed on May 28, 1890 and listed Charles Kennard and William H. A. Maupin, both of Baltimore, as the assignees.

Shortly after the company started, the shop manager, William Fuld, decided to go into business for himself. He forced Kennard out of the business and changed the name to the Ouija Novelty Co. He began producing the "Fuld's Talking Board" in record numbers and became a successful businessman. He was a member of the Baltimore General Assembly in later life and remained in control of the company for the next 35 years. Finally, in 1927, during a brief slump in sales, Fuld strangely took his own life. He climbed to the top of a Baltimore building and jumped to his death. Other versions of the story have it that Fuld died accidentally while supervising the replacement of a flag pole on top of the building. A support post that he was holding onto gave way and he plunged to his death. This is likely the more accurate version of events, although Fuld committing suicide gave the Ouija an eerie taint over the years.

The Ouija Board was anything but a curse to Fuld's company though. It became the most successful talking board manufacturer of all time, selling millions of boards as well as other toys and games. Fuld had created a new industry with the Ouija board, which he claimed to have invented himself. He started the apocryphal tales of the naming of the board (using oui and ja) and claimed many of his successful sales plans came from the board itself.

His heirs maintained the company until 1966, when they sold out to Parker Brothers. This company, also known for their success with toys and especially board games, produced not only reproductions of the Fuld board but also made a deluxe wooden edition of the board for a time. They hold all of the patents and trademarks to the board today and they still produce it in large numbers. In spite of the fact that it is now sold in toy stores, it remains a near duplicate (albeit a more cheaply made one) of the Spiritualist board that was sold many years ago.


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I decided to start this thread because today a woman I know very well began discussing ghosts and the like with two other persons, all believers. She and another woman traded tales of Ouija Board use. Her tale was something like this, missing some details because I was too busy being incredulous to ask questions: Some young people were using a Ouija and one asked to speak with his dead grandfather. The woman telling the tale said she was in another part of the house and had no knowledge of what was going on. She heard the youngsters making a commotion, obviously distressed. When she went in the television was purportedly still playing even though its cord lay on the floor, not connected. When the youngsters told of calling on the grandfather, the woman realized the man's presence had come into her home. She told the presence to leave, told it it had no right of entry, since it was her home, not of the young man who had called on him. The television quit playing. She had the youngsters feverishly praying the whole time. Since then the dangerous Ouija game is not allowed in her home. The woman recounted a story equally as incredulous. I left out of there to avoid getting drawn into an argument over such things. I will be back in a minute with a link to the site that I took the history from.