Page "Murphy's law" Paragraph 11

In May 1951, in Genetic Psychology Monographs volume 43, page 204, Anne Roe gives a transcript of an interview ( part of a Thematic Apperception Test, asking impressions on a photograph ) with Theoretical Physicist number 3: "... As for himself he realized that this was the inexorable working of the second law of the thermodynamics which stated Murphy's law ‘ If anything can go wrong it will ’.

" Anne Roe's papers are in the American Philosophical Society archives in Philadelphia ; those records ( as noted by Stephen Goranson on the American Dialect Society list 12 / 31 / 2008 ) identify the interviewed physicist as Howard Percy " Bob " Robertson ( 1903 – 1961 ).

Robertson's papers are at the Caltech archives ; there, in a letter Robertson offers Roe an interview within the first three months of 1949 ( as noted by Goranson on American Dialect Society list 5 / 9 / 2009 ).

The Robertson interview apparently predated the Muroc scenario said by Nick Spark ( American Aviation Historical Society Journal 48 ( 2003 ) p. 169 ) to have occurred in or after June, 1949.