Origin of "Murphy's Law" Pushed Back further, to 1908

Stephen Goranson goranson at DUKE.EDU
Thu Dec 13 12:41:12 UTC 2007


Quoting "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>:


> [....]
> 2.  Does it exist elsewhere, prior to this, in the writings of either
> Devant or Maskelyne? (or anyone else?)
> [....]

What criteria exclude 1877-spoken, 1878-read "It is found that anything
that can
go wrong at sea generally does go wrong sooner or later."?
Have non-English mountaineering texts been searched well for a possible source
for the 1952 "Anything that can possibly go wrong, does"?

Stephen

PS the next edition of YBQ might index "Murphy" and "wrong."

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