"Murphy's Law" antedating 1943

[Joel S. Berson]

What is the earliest previously known date?  (My gut tells me there
should be a comma in the Subject line after "antedating".)

Will the Ig Nobel Prize committee have to take back its award?

Joel

At 10/6/2009 09:50 AM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
>Wow -- one of the best antedatings I have ever seen!  Stephen had
>already pretty much disproved the standard etymology for the term
>"Murphy's Law," but this puts the nail in the
>coffin.  Congratulations to Stephen!
>
>Fred Shapiro
>
>________________________________________
>From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
>Stephen Goranson [goranson at DUKE.EDU]
>Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 9:48 AM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: "Murphy's Law" antedating 1943
>
>Seeds of Hope: an Engineer's World War II Letters,
>By William O. Sabel (West Lafayette, Ind. : Purdue University Press, 1999).
>
>page 99 [letter date]:
>March 26, 1943
>
>page 100:
>" My platoon is busy building a warehouse at the Air Force Supply Depot
>[in the
>Pacific campaign] We also put up a steel Quonset hut 20 X 100 feet and poured
>the concrete floor today....I feel if I am not personally watching every move
>the men make, something will go wrong and it usually does--Murphy's Law. They
>can't look ahead and see the consequences of their present actions."
>
>Stephen Goranson
>http://www.duke.edu/~goranson

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org