This series is written by Henry Cooke and produced by Garrett D. Tiedemann.

Original music and sound design by Garrett D. Tiedemann.

Tape Extracts:

Four years after Morse’s transmission, in 1848 in New York state, two sisters reported hearing knocking, wrapping, and banging sounds at night that weren’t being made by anyone in the house.

In time the Fox sisters started to communicate with the entity making these sounds.

On March the 31st, Kate, the youngest, invited it to repeat the snappings of her fingers. She then asked it to knock out her age and that of her sister Margaret and of their older sister Leah who had moved away.

12, 15, 17.

Over the next few days they devised a code which included yes, no, and letters of the alphabet.

Then the Fox family fled the house to nearby Rochester. The tapping spirit followed.

Kate and Margaret became famous, demonstrating the first paid public seance in November 1849 and going onto successful careers as spirit mediums until their confession nearly 40 years later in 1888 that it was…