In a letter to a friend Koons explained how his group of mediums got better with practice:
During the latter part of the summer 1852, our circle had assumed a considerable degree of order and precision. Alternate groups of different classes of spirits, would preside, as it were,—over the deliberations of our circle—to wit,—the spirits of late deceased friends, Christian martyrs, Jewish rulers, American Indian chiefs, and antediluvian, and pre Adamite spirits. Also, a class of spirits, who called themselves primitive Americans. At this time, we were confined to the tedious method of holding correspondence with the departed, by the tiping of tables, and stands, to the successive letters of the alphabet, that were required to form the syllables, words, and sentences, of which the communication thus received, was composed. If a spirit desired to indict a communication, it would enter a notice of the same, and would appoint a time, for the special purpose.
Koons grew increasingly perplexed as he tried to decipher the meaning behind the messages. Just as ordinary mortals hold contradictory views, so did the invisibles. Did their silly babbling contain any spiritual lessons at all? As his impatience grew, Koons felt that the cacophony of advice—though given in English—was almost as useless as the original spirit writing that he could not read. “After communicating with Spirits of every grade, and those of every sect and party of men that ever inhabited the earth, each claiming to hold, with sometimes slight variations, the same views that they entertained while living in the body, he got provoked that he could find no oracle upon whom he could rely,” the Spiritual Telegraph recounted.
On August 15, 1852—after six months of recording the bizarre messages—Koons began to feed his manuscripts into the flames of a stove or open hearth in his house. The dwelling began to shake and the furniture was thrown about. Strange noises resembling logs rolling across the roof or trees falling on the cabin scared him, and as the shaking continued, he feared the house would fall down around him. Koons stopped his headstrong act to ask the spirits what they wanted. He was told to hold on a little longer and all would be well. Koons demanded to know whom these reassurances were coming from. Through calling out the alphabet and listening for raps at the appropriate letter, the Koons mediums were able to spell out the identity of the forceful intruder as “King and Master of Paints, Servant and Scholar of God.” His fear perhaps consumed by curiosity, Koons demanded to know King’s history. The spirit agreed to give it two days hence, at 3:00 p.m. on August 17. He asked Koons not to burn any more manuscripts in the meantime and not to abandon his quest. Should Koons decide to accept the offer, he, King, would corral the entities at future circles. King would banish the base spirits that muddled Koons’s mind. All the Koons family had to do was accept King as their spiritual guide.
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ON August 16, 1852—the day after the spirit King made himself known to the family—Nahum Koons took up a pencil and began to draw. Supposedly acting at the direction of King, Benjamin Franklin, and other entities, the 14-year-old sketched a diagram of what the spirits called “an electrical table” that would enable them not only to speak but to create vocal and instrumental music. Jonathan Koons set to work. He hired a man to help him build the table although he could ill afford the expense. Even with the diagram, Koons apparently had to do some experimenting to get it right, and the task soon proved frustrating. “Sometimes Mr. Koons fancied they [the spirits] altered their original drawing, or else he had not fully understood it,” the Spiritual Telegraph reported.
Just as he had done when learning automatic writing, Koons eventually became discouraged enough to consider jettisoning his quixotic scheme. After a week or two of fruitless effort, he sought in vain for a sign that the spirits would fulfill their promises. “Being in a state of gloom and great despondency, with his relatives and friends chiding him for the foolish expenditure, and reporting that he was crazy, etc., it was more than he could bear,” the Telegraph explained, “and he resolved again to abandon the whole thing and burn up the several parts of the table which he had made.”
Magically, as Koons was about to consign the electrical table to the flames, the now-familiar aural sensation of trees or logs rolling on the cabin roof and falling to the ground started up again. As before, Abigail begged him not to do anything rash and to keep working. The furniture lurched around the cabin as husband and wife debated the issue. Nahum walked into the room in the midst of the turmoil. Koons told his son to “go to the table and find out what those devils want.” With Nahum acting as the medium, the spirits tipped out a stern rebuke: Jonathan must stop his impulsive behavior and finish the project. But Jonathan, by now in a combative mood, refused to work any further unless the spirits renewed their commitment. Finally the invisibles gave specific instructions on how to assemble the table, telling Jonathan they would soon communicate in the manner they had promised.
He dropped his plans to scuttle the machine, and by the next evening the pieces of the apparatus had been put in place according to the spirits’ directions. Jonathan refused to join the circle that surrounded the prototype that night and threatened to burn it up if nothing happened. Presumably Nahum, his mother, and other family members conducted the strange vigil. “A few moments after the circle was formed, the wires of the machine began to pulsate as it were, and increased in strength until the whole machine shook like an aspen leaf, and even the whole house trembled,” the Spiritual Telegraph recounted. After half an hour of disturbance, something rapped out FAREWELL FRIENDS, thus encouraging Jonathan to complete the table.
The final product was a contraption made of metal and wood whose purpose was “collecting and focalizing the magnetic aura used in the manifestations.” Sometimes described as a “novel battery,” “retainer of electricity,” or “spirit machine,” it was really an apparatus that was placed on top of a six-legged wooden table about 6 feet long and 30 inches wide.
A wooden post 4 feet high rose up perpendicular to the tabletop. Fastened to each side of the post was a carved piece of wood. The upright post had two or three iron bars passing through it parallel to the table. Hanging from the iron bars were what one observer called “a wire woven into a kind of net work with copper and tin plates, and small bells.” Others thought that the metal plates were made of copper and zinc; almost everyone agreed that they were fashioned in the shape of doves. Jonathan had stocked the drawers underneath the tabletop with paint, brushes, and paper that the spirits might need. Down near the floor, a horizontal wooden bar with eight sides was suspended by copper wires.
During the next few days the spirits began to assert themselves through the machine. According to the Spiritual Telegraph, “The spirits wrote on the table with chalk, time was beat to music, Spirit-bands were organized, etc.” From this cacophony a clear demand emerged: the spirits gave Jonathan a list of instruments required for their music making. He had no idea where to find items such as a drum, accordion, harmonica, banjo, cornet, tambourine, and bells, but he was told to travel to McConnelsville or Malta, two towns that faced each other across the Muskingum River some 30 miles from his home.
Jonathan and Nahum quickly embarked on the quest. Arriving in Malta on horseback, the two could find no store that sold the instruments. “He [Koons] felt that he had been humbugged,” the Spiritual Telegraph reported, “but, after putting up the horse, they went out with a piece of paper and pencil, and seeing a buggy wagon standing under a shed put the paper and pencil in it, and stepped [to] one side a rod or two; after remaining some minutes they went to the wagon and found written upon the paper, ‘Cross over the river to McConnelsville and inquire of the first man you meet if he knows who has musical instruments.’”
Once in McConnelsville Nahum and Jonathan encountered a stranger who directed them to the private residence of a man who owned a drum. They struck a deal and left the man’s home with not only the drum but directions to the owners of other instruments. The pair went house to house and almost miraculously were able to procure all the items on the spirits’ wish list.
Upon returning home the Koonses arranged the musical instruments as the spirits wanted.