Part I

Who was the father of the ideal knot problem?

As I have discovered, we should rather ask "Who was the mother of the ideal knot problem?"
Why? After an extensive study, I come to the conclusion,
that  the first person to think of the knot tightening problem
could have been a young female Polish shepherd met by Jozef Chelmonski.
Have a look at the picture below. The gossamer knot is hardly visible, but it is there!

Gossamer with a knot
(based on Gossamer by Jozef Chelmonski)

A similar problem, although in rather different circumstances,
was also considered by an anonymous lady known by Wojciech Gerson,
a Polish painter living at the end of the IXX century.
Her quite original idea was to use the viscous drag of the flowing water
to tighten and untangle knots.

The Rest with the Entangled Trefoil
(based on The Rest by Wojciech Gerson)

As it often happens, the same ideas were born, independently, in many minds.
There exists a convincing evidence, that also a lady known by Amadeo Modigliani was
making some experiments with untangling knots. Her position in the knot tightening debate
was, apparently, completely different.


Reclining nude untangling a knot
(based on: Reclining Nude from the Back by Amadeo Modigliani)