Historedia
Episode 4 of 4

Patent Grant

When
1891-02-10
Where
United States
Part of
First commercial release of the Ouija board by Elijah Bond

The patent for the talking board was officially issued on February 10, 1891.

The patent, titled "Toy or game," was granted to Elijah Bond. The grant followed the initial filing in 1890. This date marks the formal legal recognition of the invention, distinct from the commercial release date.

Sources

  1. Elijah Bond Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-30
  2. Ouija Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-01

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.