What do you think of this fact?
That blue and yellow can in your garage has a name that sounds like a secret code. It’s actually just a lab result.
Three people, one small lab
In 1953, the Rocket Chemical Company in San Diego, California, had a staff of three. Working in a small lab, they set out to make rust-prevention solvents and degreasers for the aerospace industry. What they needed was a formula that pushes water away from metal.
It took them 40 attempts to get it right. That’s where the name comes from: WD stands for “Water Displacement”, and 40 for the attempt that finally worked.
Built for missiles, taken home in pockets
The first to use it was Convair, an aerospace contractor in San Diego. It used the product to protect the outer skin of the Atlas missile from rust and corrosion. According to the company’s own history, it worked so well that several employees took cans home with them.
Founder Norm Larsen noticed the potential. He tested the product in aerosol cans, figuring that regular people could use it at home too. In 1958, WD-40 reached store shelves in San Diego for the first time.
The company stayed tiny for a while. In 1960 it had grown to just seven people, who sold an average of 45 cases a day to hardware and sporting goods stores in the San Diego area, straight out of the trunks of their cars. In 1969, Rocket Chemical gave up its old name and renamed itself after its only product: WD-40 Company.
Bonus fact: According to the company, WD-40 was in 4 out of 5 American households by 1993, and it was selling more than one million cans a week.
All of that rests on a team that didn’t stop at attempt 39.