Benford and Newcomb stumbled upon the law in the same way: while flipping through pages of a book of logarithmic tables, they noticed that the pages in the beginning of the book were dirtier than the pages at the end. This meant that their colleagues who shared the library preferred quantities beginning with the number one in their various disciplines?
So says Betsy Devine quoting Lisa Zyger. Devine then elaborates, digging happily and skillfully in the dirt.