Several pictures should make it possible to duplicate the thing. An old fashioned top that you throw with a string. A shell is spun by hand before being fired by a gun. The tippe top. A tippe top was spun on smoked glass.
Photos show the path of the stem until flip and the soot marks on the top.
A brief review of the history of the tippe top problem. The tippe top flips when spun. 1Q60.30 tippe top 13-3.1 Show that the tippe top spins in the opposite of the expected direction when inverted. The tippe top flips. A rigorous analysis of the top's mechanics is offered, together with computer-generated solutions of the equations of motion.