A short presentation of the original Jones polynomial

This text is a brief description of the Jones polynomial as it appears in the announcement in [9], together with Jones’ comments in the letter he addressed to Joan Birman on 31st May 1984 [8]. As much as possible I have followed the author’s initial notations. I add comments about the history of the events as I remember them, with the help of several testimonies of the “actors”. Among them: Didier Hatt-Arnold, Pierre de la Harpe, Cam Van Quach Hongler. It took me nontrivial efforts with my memories to get the chronology right (I hope so). The help of Eva Bayer was decisive. My warmest thanks to her. One may disagree with some of my statements which express a personal opinion. On purpose I have adopted a candid style.