There are some things sitting in garages, workshops, kitchens, and junk drawers that we barely think about anymore.
A roll of duct tape.
A flashlight.
A screwdriver.
And, of course, that unmistakable blue-and-yellow can of WD-40.
Most of us know exactly what it looks like. We know the smell. We know that satisfying little hiss when you spray it. And chances are, someone in your family has reached for it when a hinge squeaked, a bolt refused to move, or something metal started looking a little too rusty.
But here’s the part that still amazes me:
WD-40 wasn’t originally created for your garage.
It was developed in the 1950s to solve a problem connected to aerospace technology and the Atlas missile program.
Yep.
That little can sitting beside your toolbox has a history that reaches all the way back to the tense technological world of the Cold War.
And the story gets even better because the name WD-40 isn’t a mysterious product code. It tells you exactly how the formula came to exist.
It took 40 attempts.
So let’s take a trip back to 1953 and uncover how a product designed to protect aerospace hardware from corrosion eventually became one of the most recognizable household maintenance products in the world.
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What Does WD-40 Actually Stand For?
Let’s start with the name.
WD-40 stands for “Water Displacement, 40th formula.”
That’s not a marketing number dreamed up decades later.
According to the company’s history, the formula was developed after 40 attempts to create a water-displacing product suitable for preventing rust and corrosion.
The work began in 1953 at the Rocket Chemical Company in San Diego, California.
The company was small—just three people—and its goal was to develop rust-prevention solvents and degreasers for the aerospace industry.
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