Editing Planchette (section)

==In popular culture==
[[File:Mystic Hand planchette c.1940.jpg|thumb|upright|left|"Mystic Hand" planchette]]

During the initial craze in the late 1860s, planchettes became the subject of several popular songs sold in sheet music form. In 1868, the C.Y. Fonda sheet music company of [[Cincinnati]] published the "Planchette Polka", composed by August La Motte, dedicated to Kirby & Co, which was the dominant planchette manufacturer of the day.<ref name="plank3">{{cite web |title=Kirby & Co. at mysteriousplanchette.com|url=http://mysteriousplanchette.com/Manu_Portal/kirbyandco.html|access-date=2012-01-16}}</ref> Also in 1868, the Lee & Walker sheet music company of [[Philadelphia]] debuted the song "Planchette" with words by Elmer Ruan Coates and music by Eastburn. The song includes the chorus "Planchette, planchette, oh! Let me see/What luck you have in store for me!"<ref name="sheet1">{{cite web |title=JScholarship Sheet Music Archives|year=1868|url=https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/27681|access-date=2012-01-16|last1=Coates (Lyricist)|first1=Elmer Ruan}}</ref> In 1870, Oliver & Ditson sheet music company of Boston published "Planchette: The Celebrated Comic Song" with words by G.A. Meazie Jr, as popularized by the singer Henry Clay Barnabee.<ref name="sheet1" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=134.060 – Planchette. The Celebrated Comic Song.|url=https://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/collection/134/060|access-date=2021-08-02|website=Levy Music Collection|publisher=Oliver Ditson & Co., originally}}</ref> Barnabee described the song as "named after a little pseudo-psychic machine, a fad of the hour".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Barnabee|first=Henry Clay|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A3QsAQAAIAAJ&q=+planchette|title=My Wanderings: Reminiscences of Henry Clay Barnabee; Being an Attempt to Account for His Life, with Some Excuses for His Professional Career|date=1913|publisher=Chapple Publishing Company|pages=250|language=en|quote=When I sang my 'Planchette' song - so named after a little pseudo-psychic machine, a fad of the hour, that was supposed to answer questions - ....}}</ref>

The 9 July 1892 Volume 103 edition of ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' included a cartoon depicting an impish devil pushing a planchette toward a prediction of the next Derby winner, claiming the device would "put an end to all speculation".<ref name="punch">{{cite web |title=Punch, Vol 103|url=http://www.freefictionbooks.org/books/p/5434-punch-or-the-london-charivari-volume-103-july-9-1892?start=15|access-date=2012-01-16}}</ref>

The 25 March 1907 edition of the ''[[Washington Post]]'' famously depicted President [[Teddy Roosevelt]] as a scribbling planchette in their satirical "Political Planchette Board" cartoon. The illustration depicts Roosevelt's struggle between Independent Democracy on one hand, and Progressive Republicans on the other. Roosevelt's planchette form is writing out "Victory" over the two factions with the planchette's pencil.<ref name="plank4">{{cite web |title=mysteriousplanchette.com|url=http://mysteriousplanchette.com/History/history3.html|access-date=2012-01-16}}</ref>

Use of a planchette is featured in the 1948 novel ''[[No Highway]]'' by [[Nevil Shute]], where the written message obtained by automatic writing provides the information necessary to locate of the tail plane of a crashed aircraft.<ref name="Temple1966">{{cite book|author=Ruth Zabriskie Temple|title=Modern British literature|url=https://archive.org/details/modernbritishlit04temp|url-access=registration|year=1966|publisher=F. Ungar Pub. Co.|isbn=978-0-8044-3276-4}}</ref>

In ''[[The Haunting of Hill House]]'', a 1959 novel by [[Shirley Jackson]], Mrs. Montague uses a planchette in an attempt to communicate with spirits in Hill House, while Mr. Montague and the original group disagree with her charlatanic methods.<ref>[https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/haunting-of-hill-house/section7/ Spark Notes: The Haunting of Hill House Chapter 7]</ref> 

Artist Frederick Sands depicted the planchette in use in his watercolor "La Planchette" in the 1960s.<ref name="sands">{{cite web |title=La Planchette|url=http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/15855/lot/293/|access-date=2012-01-16}}</ref>

[[Drag queen]] [[Sharon Needles]] wore a "Mystic Hand" planchette on her forehead as a [[fashion statement]] when she was crowned "America's Next Drag Superstar" on [[RuPaul's Drag Race]], April 2012.<ref name="Sharon Needles">[http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/04/26/rupauls-drag-race-reunited-taping-on-the-scene/ On the scene at 'RuPaul's Drag Race: Reunited']</ref> Ms. Needles has confirmed on her [[Facebook wall]] that the planchette was a 1940s original, not a modern reproduction.<ref name="SharonConfirmsOriginal">[https://www.facebook.com/SHARONNEEDLESisDEAD/posts/211738132278096 Sharon Needles facebook conversation]. Retrieved 2012.05.03.</ref> The wooden planchette was manufactured c. 1940 by the [[Haskell Manufacturing Corporation]] in Chicago, Illinois, and was sold with a version of a Ouija board called the "Hasko Mystic Board".<ref name="MysticHandPlanchette">[http://ehive.com/account/3471/object/32711 Mystic Hand Planchette, Museum of the Macabre]. Retrieved 2012.05.03.</ref>

In August 2012, the [[Baltimore Museum of Industry]] hosted the first-of-its-kind retrospective ouija board exhibit. The exhibit featured two rare planchette specimens to represent the early evolution of talking boards, including a [[Selchow & Righter]] "Scientific Planchette" and a G.W. Cottrell "Boston Planchette".<ref name="balt">{{cite web |title=Video Survey of Exhibit on YouTube|via = [[YouTube]]|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig_CjBV1guQ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211222/ig_CjBV1guQ |archive-date=2021-12-22 |url-status=live|access-date=2012-01-16}}{{cbignore}}</ref>