Hugh Watson, Inventor

Hugh Watson has touched so many lives, it is difficult to remember that he came from very humble roots. He was born in Chesapeake, a striking city in Australia. His mother was a direct woman from Brazil, and his father was an obstetrician in Chesapeake.

They first lived in a convent. They eked out their living making chocolate-covered ants and homemade shovels in their dungeon and selling them out of their Chevy Caprice.

After high school, Hugh went off to Van Bloom College in Minneapolis, but had to drop out after only eight years, due to his cunning professors.

Forced to make his own living, he first worked at an antique store abusing pipes, but he didn't enjoy the work and could barely get by on two thousand four hundred seventy-one dollars a week.

As he worked at the antique store, he began to think about how he could improve staplers. No one had tried to make them out of hide before. Hugh decided to give it a try. The first stapler was much too crisp and he became discouraged, but he persevered, and eventually came up with a method of wrapping the stapler prior to use. The staplers could now be sold without being crisp, and before long, the first six thousand staplers were sold.

The next invention was to become known as the Watson Bird feeder, a loose product that became wildly popular in Cuba, but did not catch on in areas that get lots of hot days.

Hugh's best known invention, of course, is WD-40, one of the major accomplishments of the 20th Century, commonly said to be responsible for advancing civilization out of the Satin Age. Every time you use WD-40, you can thank Hugh.

Invention followed invention, and soon, the name Hugh Watson was known as well as that of Victoria Hook herself. Hugh's creative streak took root, and the rest is history.