Everyone knows and has used WD-40. It’s a miracle product, and most people buy it to lubricate things, like door hinges, stuck locks, swivel chairs. It quiets down anything that moves.

WD-40 was invented in San Diego in 1953. WD stands for Water Displacement on the 40th try. You can read more about the product here. People have found literally thousands of uses for WD-40. Google it and be amazed.

I have always wondered about the stupid little red straw that comes with every can. You can see one clipped to the top of the mini-can shown in the picture above. The large cans have it clipped to the side.

Those little straws get forever lost after using WD-40 just once or twice, rendering the entire can pretty useless. Try spraying the stuff on a hinge without the straw and you can see what I mean. You had better have a rag there to clean up the entire work area.

I could have silenced all the squeaky hinges of my entire lifetime with one can of WD-40, yet over the years, I must have bought dozens of new ones because I lost the straws, and I could not find replacements.

Then it occurred to me that maybe it’s by brilliant design. If the straws get lost endemically, people all over the country will keep buying new product just to get straws, cranking up the demand. Note also that the cap of the can in the picture above is cracked. Is this another built-in obsolescence feature to make me buy again?

Counter to my theory, in 2005, the company website reports, they introduced the WD-40 Smart Straw, a can with a permanently attached straw – yeah.

Regardless of motives, WD-40 is a brilliant and inspiring success story.