Ouija Boards
Ouija is a board on which the alphabet is printed
in two arched rows across the middle of It was in 1850 that a Charles Kennard with the financial help of two entrepreneurs formed the Kennard Novelty Company to market a game that he had designed and called the Ouija board. It is believed that he decided to name the game Ouija (pronounced wee-ja) as he thought it meant ‘good luck’ in Egyptian. He later found out that this was not so and in fact it was a combination of the words yes in French ‘oui’ and yes in German ‘ja’. Due to a dispute with his financial backers in 1892, Kennard was forced out of the business and his works foreman a William Fuld became the new owner of the company. About this time interest in spiritualism gained momentum, they found that the board was ideal as a medium for contacting the ‘spirits’. Due to popularity, it was not long before others started marketing almost identical boards, calling them ‘Talking Boards’. Fuld immediately made changes to the business, he brought in his brother Isaac to help, changed the name to the Ouija Novelty Company and patented the name and design of the board.
The result of these changes increased sales and
all was going well until William fell out with Isaacand ousted him
for alleged embezzlement of company funds. William then once again
changed the company William continued to run the company successfully until early in 1927, when disaster struck for he had a fatal accident. He had climbed onto the factory roof in order to supervise some work that was in progress when a post that he was holding on to broke and William fell to his death. The business passed on to his children who continued to run it successfully until 1966 when they sold the business to Parker Brothers who continued manufacturing the game in its original Fuld design until 1999 when production ceased. In 1847 spiritualism began when Andrew Jackson an American, published his book ‘Natures Divine Revelations’ and when in 1948 three sisters, Katherine, Leah and Margaret Fox claimed that they had contacted the spirit of a dead person. Due to the nation-wide publicity, they became overnight celebrities that created an intense interest in the subject throughout the USA and Europe. Various forms of communicating with the spirits was used, from linking hands around a table and asking it to tilt and knock, automatic writing, and through speaking to the dead whilst in a trance, many were proved to be impostors. With so much interest it was only natural the Ouija Board became an instant success and in great demand. The Spiritualist Church of today does not use the Ouija as a means of communication with the spirit world and advise anyone against using it. They are only too aware of the possible harm it could cause. We at Ghost Watch UK are not members of the spiritualist church; we do not use the Ouija, and we would not advise you to use it. However we do feel that the Ouija is a worthy research project in its own right, although it is not on our agenda.
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the board, below the letters is numbers one to nine followed by zero.
On the top left hand side is printed ‘Yes’ on the right
‘No’ and at the bottom ‘Good Bye’. The users
finger is placed lightly touching an object called a planchette,
which is a heart shaped object with a small circular window with a
pointer. As it moves over the letters it spells out an answer to a
given question.
name to the William Fuld Company. Isaac set up his own business
selling very similar boards, which he called the Oriole Talking Board.