The Magic Lube: WD-40

There is a joke that says, “If it is supposed to move and does not, WD-40. If it moves and it is not supposed to, Duct Tape.”

WD-40 is a household name here in the U.S., as well as the other 173 countries around the world where it is sold. WD-40 was originally invented 65 years ago, on September 23, 1953, by Rocket Chemical Company (later renamed the WD-40 Company) in sunny San Diego, California.

As the legend goes, WD-40 was invented by employee and chemist at Rocket Chemical Company, Iver Norman Lawson. Lawson reportedly was working at home trying to develop a water displacing chemical to sell to Convair to protect the outer skin and working components of the Atlas ICBM missile. The outer skin of these missiles also served as the outer wall of the missiles fabric-thin fuel balloon tanks, which had to be inflated with nitrogen when the rocket was on standby to prevent the fuel bladders from collapsing.

Upon discovering that the fortieth attempt of creating this water displacing formula was successful, Lawson turned it over to the Rocket Chemical Company and earned a reward of $500, or equivalent to about $5,000 today. Then RCC President Norman Larsen came up with the idea to package it in aerosol cans and market it for household uses, in addition to its nuclear arsenal upbringing.

In 1961, it had fully reached the consumer market, and by 1965, it was being used extensively by airlines including Delta and United on fixed and movable joints ranging from DC-8s and Boeing 720s for maintenance and overhaul, cleaning turbines, removing light rust from control lines and the handling and storage of metal parts. In 1969, WD-40 had reached England, and in 1973 the now WD-40 Company went public with its first NASDAQ public stock offering.

While WD-40’s formula is a trade secret and has not been changed over the years, it was never patented to avoid having to publish the chemical make-up of the formula on its patent application. For 65 years, the formula has remained a trade secret and is kept under lock and key, just like the magic formula for Coke and KFC.