🚀 go-pugleaf

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc Steve Wertz <swertz@austin.rr.com> wrote:
: Jure Sah wrote:

:> Anyway, WD-40 was designed for protecting and repairing whatever
:> electronics that was supposed to ever float in space. I find it works
:> quite well on earth too.

: WD was invented by the US Army long before anybody made it into space,
: as a 'Water Deterrent', hence the name 'WD-40' (40 was probably how many
: billions of dollars it took to formulate).

: -sw

Actually, you were closer than most!  The following was d/l'd from their 
website and can be taken as authoritative.  

						 - don

 
   In 1953, a fledgling company called Rocket Chemical Company and its
   staff of three set out to create a line of rust-prevention solvents
   and degreasers for use in the aerospace industry, in a small lab in
   San Diego, California.
 
   It took them 40 attempts to get the water displacing formula worked
   out. But they must have been really good, because the original secret
   formula for WD-40--which stands for Water Displacement perfected on
   the 40th try--is still in use today.
 
   Convair, an aerospace contractor, first used WD-40 to protect the
   outer skin of the Atlas Missile from rust and corrosion. The product
   actually worked so well that several employees snuck some WD-40 cans
   out of the plant to use at home.
 
   A few years following WD-40's first industrial use, Rocket Chemical
   Company founder Norm Larsen experimented with putting WD-40 into
   aerosol cans, reasoning that consumers might find a use for the
   product at home as some of the employees had. The product made its
   first appearance on store shelves in San Diego in 1958.
 
   In 1960 the company nearly doubled in size, growing to seven people,
   who sold an average of 45 cases per day from the trunk of their cars
   to hardware and sporting goods stores in the San Diego area.
 
   In 1961 the first full truckload order for WD-40 was filled when
   employees came in on a Saturday to produce additional concentrate to
   meet the disaster needs of the victims of hurricane Carla along the
   U.S. Gulf coast. WD-40 was used to recondition flood and rain damaged
   vehicles and equipment.