[ih] What is the origin of the private network address 192.168.*.*?

[stevenehrbar at elp.rr.com (Steven Ehrbar)]

Stephane Bortzmeyer wrote:
> Is there a real historical reason for that particular choice of numbers? Why not 127.127..? Or 128.128..?

This is a fuzzy recollection of something I believe I read, which might 
well be inaccurate, and for which I can find no corroboration.  I 
mention it solely because it might spark memories from someone who 
actually knows:

A company used 192.168.x.x example addresses in some early 
documentation.  A number of people followed the manual literally when 
setting up their internal networks.  As a result, it was already being 
used on a rather large number of private networks anyway, so it was 
selected when the RFC 1597 was adopted.