The Fox girls have became famous and their public séances in New York in 1850 attract notable people including William Cullen Bryant, George Bancroft, James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Parker Willis, Horace Greeley, Sojourner Truth and William Lloyd Garrison.

They also attract imitators; during the following few years, hundreds of people will claim the ability to communicate with spirits.

Kate and Margaret Fox have become well-known mediums, giving séances for hundreds of people.

Many of these early séances are entirely frivolous, where sitters seek insight into "the state of railway stocks or the issue of love affairs," but the religious significance of communication with the deceased soon becomes apparent.

Horace Greeley, the prominent publisher and politician, has become a kind of protector for them, enabling their movement in higher social circles, but the lack of parental supervision is pernicious, as both of the young women have begun to drink wine.

The cracking of joints is the theory scientists and skeptics most favor to explain the rappings, a theory dating to 1850.

The physician E. P. Longworthy investigates the sisters and notes how the knockings or raps always come from under their feet or when their dresses are in contact with the table.

He concludes that Margaret and Kate have produced the noises themselves.

John W. Hurn, who publishes articles in the New-York Tribune, also comes to a similar conclusion of fraud.

The Reverend John M. Austin will later claim the noises can be made by cracking toe joints.

The Reverend D. Potts demonstrates to an audience that the raps can be made by this method.