Why Snake Type Guides

[Uncle Jesse]

Being skeptical and practical, almost to a fault, I suspect snake guides were designed because they were easy and cheap to make, curl a wire around a rod several times (spring like) figure how often to cut the wire; bend the wire's ends perpendicular to the circle and you have a snake guide.

Single foot were likely for a similar reason, either some commercial rod maker thought they would be good marketing or cost less to produce a rod with single foot guides: Less wrapping (labor) and less thread and varnish (material).

I remember when single foot spinning guides came out but not fly rod guides, did fly rods happen to follow the sprinning/casting ceramic single foot guides?