In February 1891, in the American newspapers, there appeared the advertisement of "Wonderful speaking board" called "Ouija". The inhabitants of Pitsburg were promised that the magic device would answer the questions about the past, present and future in a surprisingly accurate way. And in general it will be "constant entertainment and relaxation for all classes".
The mysterious "talking table" was not much different from today's board games: a flat board with an alphabet arranged in the form of two arcs over a series of numbers from 0 to 9, words "yes" and "no" in the upper corners and "goodbye" - below. The set includes a slat in the form of an arrow with a small hole. The participants of the session touch their fingertips to the board, ask the question and look dumbfounded as the pointer moves from letter to letter, giving the answer. Table and Ouija patent
Advertising never tells the whole truth - this was the case in the 19th century. Nonetheless, "Ouija" was indeed "interesting and mysterious", and was really recognized by the patent office. Even today psychologists admit that it is able to combine Known and Unknown.
The story of this game is no less mysterious. Historian Robert Murch, who was interested in this subject in 1992, said to his surprise that the history of "Ouija" is hardly known, despite its unique significance for American mass culture.
The roots of "Ouija" should be sought in the fascination with spiritualism, which swept the US in the nineteenth century. The belief that the dead are in contact with the living came from Europe. Over the ocean, the boom began in 1848, when quite unexpectedly everyone began talking about Fox sisters from New York. Women claimed to receive information from the ghosts in the form of tapping the wall. In the second half of the century, millions of Americans were already taking part in spiritual sessions, and the young state press reported on the famous media.
Europeans and Americans of those times can be easily understood: the average life expectancy has not exceeded fifty, there was high mortality of children, women died during childbirth, men - in wars. In 1862, the eleven-year-old son of the President of the United States died, and Mary Todd Lincoln conducted the sessions directly in the White House. During the Civil War, the number of Spiritualists grew every hour: hundreds of thousands of relatives and relatives left homes to never return.
New entertainment did not conflict with the Christian religion. You could deal with the "speaking board" for six days a week and go to church on Sunday. Contact with the dead was considered an ordinary thing and nobody saw anything wrong with it. We now associate similar activities with an attempt to open the door to hell.
The popularity of spiritism grew with the weariness it evoked. Usually the session was as follows: participants exchanged letters of the alphabet one after another until a mysterious tap was heard and then the alphabet was started again. To build this way, the letter after the letter the whole sentence, you had to put in a lot of effort. In the meantime, the means of communication between the living have gone far; for several decades the telegraph already existed. Why would ghost contacts be left behind? The creators of the Kennard Novelty Company came up with an idea how to make a profit in this situation.
In 1886, the Associated Press reported a novelty that caused a sensation among Ohio Spiritists - a "talking board". It was, of course, "Ouija" - a table with letters, numbers and an indicator. Many people have read this message, but only Charles Kennard from Baltimore saw it as an impulse to act. In 1890, he persuaded four more investors to his plan, and in this way he created the Kennard Novelty Company, with the exclusive right to manufacture and sell "speaking boards". None of the shareholders was a spiritualist, but everyone had a great sense of business and did not want to miss the unique opportunity to take a new market niche. !
CHARLES KENNARD
"Ouija" was not there yet. Kennard's "speaking table" did not have a name yet. Contrary to the widespread opinion of 'Ouija', it is not a combination of the French and German words for 'yes'. If you believe Robert Murch's research, it owes its name to the board of Helena Peters, the fiancée of Eliah Bond (one of the investors), which was a strong spiritist medium. Helena just asked the board itself how to call it. When the incomprehensible word "ouija" arose, a table was asked for clarification, and she replied: "Good luck!".
Such a supernatural picture is drawn from the letters of the founders of the company itself. But it must be added that Bond admitted that Helena had a medallion with a portrait of a woman whose head was the word. It is very likely that she was a popular English writer and feminist Marie Louise de la Ramée, wearing the pseudonym Ouida, and the letter "j" instead of "d" came by mistake
Businessmen understood that if they could not prove that the board was actually useful in spiritual seances, they would not get a patent for it. That's why Bond went to the Washington office of the Patent Office with irreplaceable Helena. The head of the office made it clear: if the board shows his name (which he did not know Bond or Helen, he thought), he would decide to approve the patent. They sat at the table, communicated with the ghosts and the board showed the correct letters. Was Helena really a great medium, or Bond had heard of an official before - we will never know. In any case, on February 10, 1891, a patent office clerk, with a pale face and trembling hands, handed Bond a patent for a "toy or game."
"Ouija" turned out to be a hit. The Kennard Novelty Company started with one factory in Baltimore, and in 1892 there were two more in New York and Chicago, and one in London. Even now, after more than 120 years, the talking board is popular and has a special place in American culture. "Mystical oracle and family fun" - this is what is said about her in advertising.
Even if we have knowledge of ideomotor effects, we still do not know what is actually happening during the "Ouija" game. Perhaps, these effects speak only about what is hidden in our hidden corners of the mind. And we simply experience the extraordinary possibility of contact with the Unknown
If you like it, you can vote and boast a comment about what you think about it!
