10 Everyday Inventions That Exist Thanks To War
3. WD-40
To a certain type of strategist, an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile is just about the sexiest thing that can exist. It can deliver a nuclear payload to the other side of the world, without the person pressing the button having to leave his armchair. The need to threaten the Soviet Union with reduction to radioactive glass prompted the United States to develop their first ICBM in 1953, and it was called Atlas.
The curious thing about Atlas was that to keep its weight down, the fuel tank that made up the main body of the missile was made of extremely thin metal. So thin that it would collapse like a used condom if not kept at pressure. This gigantic doomsday balloon needed constant TLC to keep it from becoming corroded, and a substance was created to be sprayed onto the tanks to protect it.
This substance also happened to be an exceptionally good lubricant, and found its way onto consumer shelves as WD-40, a product that exists because one country wanted the ability to annihilate another.