The spirit of invention has always run strong through generations of talking boards. Between the various experiemental shapes of writing planchettes and the multitude of talking board designs produced since the 19th century, it should come as little surprise that intriguing new forms and "improved" mechanisms were offered by manufacturers hoping to cash in on the cyclical crazes of the phenonmenon. This section showcases those unique forms that fall somewhere in-between true writing planchettes and their ultimate evolution into talking boards. Many of these boards are known as "dial plates," consisting of a clock-like alphabet board (the dial) and some sort of rotating or revolving pointer attached in a one-piece design. Others have laterally-moving "sliding" planchettes to spell out messages. One employs a light bulb to illuminate chosen letters, while another hearkens back to the earliest forms of table-tipping. Whatever the case, this section serves to highlight some of those bizarre creations that straddle the line between planchettes and true talking boards, while still serving that age-old endeavor to facilitate communication with spirits from beyond.
1880s-1890s
"Psychorbrette"
early 1890s