Long before it became a household staple, WD-40 was created as a quiet answer to a dangerous question: how do you keep missile casings from rusting in ocean air during the Cold War? In 1953, chemist Norm Larsen and his small Rocket Chemical Company team focused on a single objective—push water away from metal so completely that corrosion never stood a chance. They tried again and again, failing thirty-nine times before the fortieth formula finally worked, a small triumph hidden behind the simple name “Water Displacement, 40th formula.”

What happened next wasn’t a marketing plan; it was word of mouth. Technicians slipped cans home, neighbors borrowed them, and the spray proved itself on stuck bolts, squeaky doors, and forgotten tools. The product’s success grew so large the company took its name. Today, every blue-and-yellow can quietly honors an uncomfortable truth: persistence, not genius, built the thing you now reach for without thinking.