murphy's-law-ish text, 1877-8

[Stephen Goranson]

Google Books. The first view of the result gives, wrongly, 1935. The
next screen
gives a "snippet" and two different dates. The quotation and citation
below are
from the original paper publication.
SG

Quoting "Shapiro, Fred" <Fred.Shapiro at YALE.EDU>:

> Stephen,
>
> Congratulations on this outstanding discovery, which certainly is
> Murphy's-Law-ish.  Also, your many other antedatings posted recently
> have been absolutely first-rate.  Can I ask out of curiosity, which
> database yielded this 1877-8 citation?
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
> Stephen Goranson [goranson at DUKE.EDU]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 6:07 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: murphy's-law-ish text, 1877-8
>
> "It is found that anything that can go wrong at sea generally does go wrong
> sooner or later, so it is not to be wondered that owners prefer the
> safe to the scientific. It is also found that it is almost as bad to have too
> many parts as too few; that arrangements which are for exceptional and
> occasional use are rarely available when wanted, and have the disadvantage of
> requiring additional care. Their very presence, too, seems in effect to
> indispose the engineer to attend to essentials. Sufficient stress can
> hardly be
> laid on the advantages of simplicity. The human factor cannot be safely
> neglected in planning machinery. If attention is to be obtained, the engine
> must be such that the engineer will be disposed to attend to it."
>
> In the November 13, 1877 session, published 1878, Alfred Holt, "Review of the
> Progress of Steam Shipping during the last Quarter of a Century," pp. 2-11,
> here p. 8,  Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil
> Engineers, Vol.
> LI, Session 1877-78--Part I. London: Published by the Institution, 1878.
>
> Stephen Goranson
> http://www.duke.edu/~goranson
>
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>
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