The Ouija board patent
On 10 February 1891 the US Patent Office issued patent 446,054 to Charles Kennard and Elijah Bond for a lettered board filed under toy or game.
Patent 446,054 went out on 10 February 1891 to Elijah Bond, along with Charles Kennard, both businessmen. It sits in the category of toy or game. Pacific Standard summarises Bond's description: a board with the alphabet on it, plus the numerals from 1 to 0. Bond called the game Ouija.
Smithsonian Magazine says the name has a story of its own. It reports that the popular idea, a blend of French and German words for yes, is wrong. Citing the researcher Murch, it says that Helen Peters, sister-in-law to Bond, supplied the name. Bond described her as a strong medium, and the name came through as the answer when she put that question to the board.
Wikipedia places earlier talking boards among American Spiritualists, who reportedly used one very like the modern board at camps in Ohio in 1886. After the 1891 patent, it says, the board was seen as an innocent parlor game until the Spiritualist Pearl Curran made it popular for divination during World War I.
"Spiritualists in the United States believed that the dead were able to contact the living, and reportedly used a talking board very similar to the modern Ouija board at their camps in Ohio during 1886 with the intent of enabling faster communication with spirits.[2] Following its commercial patent by businessman Elijah Bond being passed on 10 February 1891,[3] the Ouija board was regarded as an innocent parlor game unrelated to the occult until American spiritualist Pearl Curran popularized its use as a divining tool during World War I.[4]"
- US446054A: Toy or game (Ouija board patent), United States Patent Office (1891), via Google Patents
- The 'Mystery' of the Ouija Board, Pacific Standard (2014)
- The Strange and Mysterious History of the Ouija Board, Smithsonian Magazine