A note on the priority of optimal multipoint methods for solving nonlinear equations

The goal of this note is to clarify some questions of the priority and chronology of three-point optimal methods which could provide a better insight into the topic. We present two methods that appeared before the method of Bi et al. [W. Bi, Q. Wu, H. Ren, A new family of eight-order iterative methods for solving nonlinear equations, Appl. Math. Comput. 214 (2009) 236–245], which is often cited in the literature as the successor of the Kung–Traub method from 1974.