Murphy's Laws

[Ron Moore]

The following may not be a definitive source for Murphy's Laws, but it agrees
with what I have heard from random sources:

>From the preface of "Murphy's Law, and other reasons why things go wrong"
by Arthur Bloch, Price/Stern/Sloan Publishers, 1977:

	... Our finest scholars, experts in the fields of linguistics and
    folk history, have tried and failed to determine the origin of Murphy's
    Law.  Who was I to argue with such a record?

	Resigned as I was to go to print without resolving these burning
    questions, I was most surprised to receive the following letter from
    a certain Mr. George Nichols of Southern California:

	Dear Arthur Bloch:

	Understand you are going to publish a book, "Murphy's Law - And
	Other Reasons Why Things Go Wrong".  Are you interested in
	interested in including the true story of the naming of Murphy's
	Law?

    And, when I responded in the affirmative:

	The event occurred in 1949 at Edwards Air Force Base, Muroc,
	California, during Air Force Project MX981.  This was Col. J. P.
	Stapp's experimental crash research testing on the track at North
	Base.  The work was being accomplished by Northrop Aircraft, under
	contract from the Aero Medical Lab at Wright Field.  I was Northrop's
	project manager.

	The Law's namesake was Capt. 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 it wrong, he will" -
	referring to the technician who had wired the bridges at the Lab.  I
	assigned Murphy's Law to the statement and the associated variations.

	... A couple of weeks after the "naming" Col. 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 reference to the Law in manufacturers' ads within only
	a few months was fantastic - and Murphy's Law was off and running
	wild.
					Sincerely,
					George E. Nichols
					Reliability & Quality Assurance Mgr.
					Viking Project
					Jet Propulsion Lab - NASA


Read the book, it is excellant.  There are now three volumes of Murphy's
Laws by Arthur Bloch.
-- 
				Ron Moore       (818) 887-4950
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