Edward A. Murphy biography at QuotationFun

A Short Biography of Major Edward A. Murphy

Author Name:

Major Edward A. Murphy

Born As:

Edward Aloysius Murphy, Jr.

Other Names:

Born:

11 Jan 1918

Died:

17 Jul 1990




author picture
Aerospace Engineer                          
                          
                          
                          
Worked on safety-critical systems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_law

Research in this area has been conducted by members of the American Dialect Society. ADS member Stephen Goranson has found a version of the law, not yet generalized or bearing that name, in a report by Alfred Holt at an 1877 meeting of an engineering society.
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. 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.