WD-40 is about as much of a common household item as duct tape, and has just about as many uses.
Most people know to reach for a can of the lubriant when they hear a squeaky door, but what many may not know is how such an amazing product came to be.
According to the product’s website, the Rocket Chemical Company set out to create a solution that would prevent rust for use in the aerospace industry in 1953. The company’s staff tackled the project, and after 40 attempts, they finally found a formula that displaced water. Hence the name WD-40 (water displacement 40).
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The name was trademarked and the formula remains a trade secret.
Aerospace contractor Convair first used WD-40 to protect the outer skin of the Atlas Missile, the nation’s first operational intercontinental ballistic missile, from rust and corrosion, the website said.
Apparently, the stuff worked for so many other uses that employees were sneaking it home. Rocket Chemical Company founder Norm Larsen worked on a way to put the solvent in aerosol cans so the rest of the world could benefit from its uses. Eventually, he succeeded and in 1958, WD-40 hit store shelves.
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And the rest, as they say, is history.
It didn’t take long for the public to discover the many uses WD-40, which include everything from removing a ring stuck on a finger to preventing mildew buildup.
The company boasts that a can of WD-40 can be found in four out of five households, and one million cans of it are sold weekly.
That’s amazing — but not surprising considering the product can be used just about everywhere.
Just remember the next time you whip out a can of WD-40 that you’re using something that was first invented to help protect missiles from rust and corrosion.
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