page_title: Diabolo
section_title: Spread to the West
hierarchical_section_title: Diabolo / History / Spread to the West
caption_attribution_description: Young lady playing the "diabolo" game, from Costumes Parisiens, 1812 (The game was known as "The Devil on Two Sticks" in England at the time; the name "diabolo" was only invented later...)
context_page_description: The diabolo is a juggling or circus prop consisting of an axle and two cups or discs derived from the Chinese yo-yo. This object is spun using a string attached to two hand sticks. A large variety of tricks are possible with the diabolo, including tosses, and various types of interaction with the sticks, string, and various parts of the user's body. Multiple diabolos can be spun on a single string.
  Like the Western yo-yo, it maintains its spinning motion through a rotating effect based on conservation of angular momentum.
context_section_description: The first known mention of a diabolo in the Western world was made by a missionary, Father Amiot, in Beijing in 1792 during Lord Macartney's ambassadorship, after which examples were brought to Europe, as was the sheng (eventually adapted to the harmonica and accordion).
  This noisy rattle consists of two hollow cylinders of metal, wood, or bamboo, joined together in the middle by a cross-piece. Each of the cylinders is pierced by a hole in opposite directions. The rope loops around the crossbeam. By holding this rattle in the air, and moving it with speed, a rapid current of air is established in each of the portions of the cylinder, and a snoring is heard, similar to that produced by the German spinning top.
  — Father Amiot
  The diabolo was part of a presentation of Chinese culture edited by stenographer Jean-Baptiste Joseph Breton in 1811-2 (La Chine en miniature). The toy's popularity waxed and waned throughout the 19th century. In 1812 the diabolo "was all the rage"; then it "enjoyed an ephemeral vogue" until it "finally fell into discredit" some time before 1861. Some consider the toy dangerous; injuries and deaths of players and bystanders have been claimed; and Préfet de Police Louis Lépine once outlawed the game in the streets of Paris.
  The name "diabolo" was coined by French engineer Gustave Phillippart, who developed the modern diabolo in the early twentieth century, although credit has also been given to Charles Burgess Fry (The Outdoor Magazine in 1906) or Fry and Phillippart. The ODE gives the term's origin as from ecclesiastical Latin diabolus (devil) via Italian, reflecting the older name, "The devil on two sticks". 
  Strong derives the name from the Greek dia bolo, roughly meaning 'across throw':  "In Greek, the term 'diaballo',  means to throw across. It comes from a combination of 'dia' meaning across or through (as in the diameter of a circle, a line that crosses circle), and 'bolla' or originally 'ballo' which means to throw..."  However, Phillippart's intention is clear in his 1905 patent, where he gives it the alternative French name Diable, "Devil". The term "loriot" was also used in England early in the twentieth century, as well as "rocket-ball". The earlier name "The devil on two sticks" is sometimes still seen, although nowadays this more often refers to another circus-based skill toy, the devil stick:  "In time 'diabolo' was retained for the spinning version of the Chinese stick toy while the hitting version of the stick toy was rendered into English as the Devil Stick."
  Phillipart claimed Diabolo to be his invention. In reality, he had improved a Napoleonic toy, which in turn had originated long ago in China." However, Charles Parker acquired the U.S. license for the term diabolo in 1906, and the fad for the toy lasted until 1910 (caricatures of public figures with the toy made it to newspapers), when it was hurt greatly by a glut of unsold poor quality off-brand versions (costs ranged from one to eight dollars). The toy was even removed from the Parker Brothers catalogue, a rare occurrence (its two-year return in 1929 also failed). Another estimate for the fad is 1910 to 1915, while the fad in Paris is mentioned in Nature in 1893. The Wright brothers became enamored with the toy during a lull in a trip to France they had taken to market their Wright Flyer III airplane.
caption: 1812 illustration of woman with diabolo
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