The Ouija Board was patented in 1891 by Elijah Bond, and that is an odd and interesting story. Bond filed a patent for the "Ouija or Egyptian luck-board" but the patent office was initially hesitant to grant it. They considered the board's ability to answer questions to be unexplainable and potentially fraudulent. To convince the patent officer, Bond and Helen Peters (his sister-in-law) conducted a demonstration. They asked the board to spell out the patent officer's name, which it supposedly did correctly, even though they claimed not to know it. The demonstration worked! The patent officer, reportedly quite shaken by the experience, approved the patent.

For a spooky fun bonus fact, learn why sheets became symbols of ghosts.

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