known in England towards the end of
the 18th century, and Lord Macartney is credited with improvements in
it. But its principal vogue was in France in 1812, where the top was
called "le diable." Amusing old prints exist (see _Fry's Magazine_,
March and December 1907), depicting examples of the popular craze in
France at the time. The _diable_ of those days resembled a globular
wooden dumb-bell with a short waist, and the sonorous hum when
spinning--the _bruit du diable_--was a pronounced feature. At intervals
during the century occasional attempts to revive the game of spinning a
top of this sort on a string were made, but it was not till 1906 that
the sensation of 1812 began to be repeated. A French engineer, Gustave
Phillipart, discovering some old implements of the game, had
experimented for some time with new forms of top with a view to bringing
it again into popularity; and having devised the double-cone shape, and
added a miniature bicycle tire of rubber round the rims of the two ends
of the double-cone, with other improvements, he named it "diabolo." The
use of celluloid in preference to metal or wood as its material appears
to have been due to a suggestion of Mr C. B. Fry, who was consulted by
the inventor on the subject. The game of spinning, throwing and catching
the diabolo was rapidly elaborated in various directions, both as an
exercise of skill in doing tricks, and in "diabolo tennis" and other
ways as an athletic pastime. From Paris, Ostend and the chief French
seaside resorts, where it became popular in 1906, its vogue spread in
1907 so that in France and England it became the fashionable "rage"
among both children and adults.

The mechanics of the diabolo were worked out by Professor C. V. Boys in
the _Proc. Phys. Soc._ (London), Nov. 1907.

DIACONICON, in the Greek Church, the name given to a chamber on the
south side of the central apse, where the sacred utensils, vessels, &c.,
of the church were kept. In the reign of Justin II. (565-574), owing to
a change in the liturgy, the diaconicon and protheses were located in
apses at the east end of the aisles. Before that time there was only one
apse. In the churches in central Syria of slightly earlier date, the
diaconicon is rectangular, the side apses at Kalat-Seman having been
added at a later date.

DIADOCHI (Gr. [Greek: diadechesthai], to receive from another), i.e.
"Successors," the name given to the Macedonian generals who fought for
the empir