Author: Dave English

“It is found that anything that can go wrong at sea generally does go wrong sooner or later.” This was written by Alfred Holt in 1877, in an engineering report on using steam engines at sea. The phrase has become known as ‘Murphy’s Law’ for reasons unclear. But the original report is deeper and more insightful than I ever would have guessed. The same paragraph also says, “Sufficient stress can hardly be laid on the advantages of simplicity.” “The human factor cannot be safely neglected in planning machinery.” “It is almost as bad to have too many parts as too … Continue reading Murphy was deeper than you guessed