From the "there is nothing really new in fly tying department" - this excerpt from Fly-Fishing: Some New Arts and Mysteries by J .C. Mottram, 1915: "It is quite unnecessary to use different coloured tying silks if one uses China Bead Silk No. 7 (Pearsall's) in the following manner. This silk is of very high quality and is made of three very fine strands of floss silk twisted together, each strand of floss silk has been dressed with a weak solution of gum, which prevents its fraying out. The silk twist is not used in its entirety in making flies, but its strands are separated and a single one is used at a time; the separation is accomplished thus: grasp a single floss silk strand and pull down the other two for about one foot, a lump will form here on the thread, which hold with a pair of pliers; when not in use it is kept hanging vertically by the weight of the pliers. When this strand has been used up, undo the pliers, pull the silk mass straight again, grasp another floss silk strand and proceed as before.

"The method of using this silk has been explained in detail because it possesses the following very great advantages over the tying silks usually recommended:

"l. The fine floss silk is sufficiently strong.

"2. It is, nevertheless, extremely fine, so that many turns of it can be made without unduly increasing the bulk of the fly.

"3. The silk is white, but so fine that turnings can lie made over a dressing without in any way hiding it; only one tying silk is, therefore, necessary.

"4. It. never slips. This is one of its greatest advantages, and depends pn the fact that it has no twist, for, as is well known, twisted materials can never be made to hold firm long, for the reason that, although some fibres may be drawn tight, all can never be; whereas, when untwisted material is used, every fibre is drawn tight, and as this occurs so they (the fibres) spread themselves out into a flat ribbon over the surface and offer great resistance to any movement. Sailors always use untwisted yarn when they wish to make all particularly secure; therefore flies tied with this floss silk have very long life.

"5. This silk, for similar reasons, can be safely ended off with two or three half hitches, and being extremely fine it never blocks the eye of the fly.

"6. No Wax nor varnish is required with this silk. Trouble and time are therefore saved and .materials omitted which tend to make a dry fly heavy.

"7. Being so fine and without twist, it can be passed through hackle without either catching in it or displacing when pulled tight.

"8. Instead of using only two or three turns of twisted tying silk to fix material to the hook, eight or ten of the floss silk can be used if necessary, and yet not take up so much room.

"It seems to me, therefore, that this tying silk should always be used by the maker of dry flies."

So much for those, like me, who thought tying with flattened thread was a relatively recent development.