The earliest known presentation of the knot was in A.A. Burger's 1914 work
Rope and Its Uses, included in an
agricultural extension bulletin from what is now
Iowa State University. Burger called the knot a '''lineman's rider''' stating it was often used by "
linemen and especially telephone men". The knot's security and ability to withstand tension in any direction are both discussed. The knot's association with
mountaineering—and with
butterflies—originates from a 1928 article in
Alpine Journal by C.E.I. Wright and J.E. Magowan. The authors claim to have developed the
butterfly noose themselves while attempting to improve the selection of knots available to climbers. The name is "so styled on the basis of a more or less fanciful resemblance imagined in the form of the knot." In the second part of the article they express dissatisfaction regarding their earlier use of the word "noose," since the knot is non-collapsing, and refer to the knot as
butterfly loop or simply
butterfly. Wright and Magowan call the butterfly loop "new," along with several other of their knots, in the sense they were unable to identify any earlier record of them. However, they prudently added that it "might be rash to claim they have never been used before."
Clifford Ashley presented the knot in 1944 (text & image #1053), calling it the '''lineman's loop'
; he attributed its first publication to J.M. Drew, but made no specific reference as to the source of this claim. A 1912 article called "Some Knots and Splices" by Drew appears in the bibliography of The Ashley Book of Knots''. A 1913 reprint of this Drew article does not mention the butterfly loop. Nor does Drew's 1942 book Ropework : Knots, Hitches, Splices, Halters --and presumably earlier edition 1936 (but which has 66pp vs. 58 for 1942?!)-- own book on knots present this knot. But in his contributed "Chapter 12 Rope Work", pp.202 .. 252 to Lester Griswold's Handicraft does present the knot. (Curiously, Ashley gives no hint that this book which he twice praises contains a full knots chapter written by Drew!) ==Use==