Murphy's Law: 1928

[Fred Shapiro]

On Tue, 14 Nov 2006, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:

> While reviewing some of the cites for Murphy's Law in the ADS-L
> archives, I ran across a supposition that it originated in theatrical
> circles, rather than aerospace.  I have access to a searchable archive
> of magic/conjuring journals, and found the following:

I was probably the one who talked about early citations referring to
"Murphy's Law," named as such, being a theatrical maxim.  The citations
you present, particularly the 1928 one, are tremendously important
discoveries that seem to me very close to the Murphy's Law proverb,
perhaps closer than the 1941 citation I have coyly alluded to for years.

And now that citation can be revealed.  I expect to get brickbats thrown
at me by people who won't consider this to be close enough to the Murphy's
Law proverb, but to me it essentially states the Law, and was written by
one of the greatest observers of political life gone wrong:

"If there is a wrong thing to do, it will be done, infallibly.  One has
come to believe in that as if it were a law of nature."
        George Orwell, War-time Diary, 18 May 1941

Fred Shapiro


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