Date:  Mon, 18 Dec 1995 08:55:10 CDT

From:  Randy Roberts <robertsr[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]EXT.MISSOURI.EDU>

Subject: Murphy's Law



   I believe I missed some of the earlier posts on this term and so,

   apologize if this is repetitive.



   I think the 1958 citation which has been mentioned comes from The

   Nation, volume 168, no. 23, June 7, 1958, pp. 505-506. The cite, in

   part, states "There is an old military maxim known as Murphy's Law

   which asserts that wherever there is a bolt to be turned, someday

   there will be someone to turn it in the wrong way." The story

   concerns a Nike Ajax missile which accidentally exploded in New Jersey

   on May 22nd.



   In 1978, columnist Charles McCabe, in the San Francisco Chronicle

   wrote a column on Murphy's Law (March 16, page 53). Again quoting,

   "Nichols says the expression was first used in 1949 at Edwards Air

   Force Base. On the track at North Base there was Colonel J. P.

   Stapp's experimental crash research testing. The actual work was

   being done by Northrop Aircraft, and Nichols was Northrop's project

   manager. The Law's namesake was Captain Ed Murphy, a development

   engineer from Wright Field Aircraft Lab. Frustration with a strap

   transducer which was malfunctioning due to an error in wiring the

   strain gage bridges caused him to remark -- 'If there is any way to do

   things wrong, he will' -- referring to the technician who had wired

   the bridges at the lab. A couple of weeks after the naming Colonel

   Stapp indicated at a press conference that our fine safety record

   during several years of simulated crash force testing was the result

   of a firm belief in Murphy's Law, and our consistent effort to deny

   the inevitable. The widespread references to the Law in

   manufacturers' ads within only a few months was fantastic -- and

   Murphy's Law was off and running wild."



    A 1978 issue (?) of Verbatim attributed Murphy's Law to Ireland.

   Another author, Jim Russell, wrote a book in 1978 called Russell on

   Murphy's Law, in which he supposedly traced the saying back to early

   Egypt.



    In Peter Tamony's files I did find one earlier cite. -- San

   Francisco Chronicle, 17 June 1957, page 21. A column by Stanton

   Delaplane titled "Postcard From England" A subheading reads "If

   anything can go wrong, it will." -- Murphy's Law



   Randy Roberts

   University of Missouri-Columbia

   robertsr[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ext.missouri.edu