Thanks to all you guys who replied. It would appear that the concensus is that the Thompson was probably first. The reason I asked was that I tried using a Thompson decades ago and, while being left-handed I even had to modify it, I found my the manual method worked better. I recently tried a Materelli because my class participants asked about them and in my opinion the Matarelli is great. But I still encourage my guys to use a couple half-hitches to get under parachute hackles.