An instrument created in 1853 for communication with supposed spirit entities. It was named for its inventor M. Planchette, a French spiritualist, and was used by his fellow believers for the next 15 years. The planchette consisted of a simple heart-shaped piece of wood mounted on two wheel-castors, with a sharpened pencil serving as a third leg. The planchette was placed on a piece of paper with the pencil point down. The operators placed their hands on top of the device. Spiritualists found that the instrument would often begin to write spontaneously in answer to questions. It had an obvious advantage over raps and table-tipping in that it could respond to question that were not phrased in a yes-or-no format and could even write messages that were not related to the sitter’s questions.
In 1868 a U.S. toymaker produced a toy planchette, which led to the device becoming a popular party item for people wishing to experiment with Spiritualism. The device was widely used among spiritualists into the early 20th century. It competed with the Ouija board, by which it was eventually replaced. During its heyday, however, it was used to write complete books of spirit messages.