- Formula 409
Formula 409 is a
Clorox Company brand of home cleaning products that includes Formula 409 All-Purpose Cleaner, Formula 409 Glass and Surface Cleaner, Formula 409 Carpet Cleaner, and many others.The flagship product was invented in
1957 by Morris D. Rouff (1909 –1997 ).Fact|date=September 2008 Along with his brothers Samuel and Nathan, Rouff was a partner in aDetroit, Michigan , company, Gem Products, which manufactured industrial cleaning supplies. Formula 409’s original application was as a commercialsolvent anddegreaser for industries that struggled with particularly difficult cleaning problems. As a heavy-dutyalkaline product, Formula 409 was harsher and more toxic than today’s residential cleaner, and was sold only in 40-gallon drums.Fact|date=September 2008Urban legend has it that the product is named for the birthday of the inventor's wife or daughter, or alternatively after a large, powerful engine found in
Chevrolet cars at the time (as sung bythe Beach Boys in their hit song, "409"). However, the product was actually the 409th formulation tried during development. [ [http://www.formula409.com Formula 409 ] ]In
1960 , Rouff sold Formula 409 to Chemsol, a New York firm, for an amount in the low six-figure range. In the mid-1960s ,entrepreneur Wilson Harrell , along with longtime friend David Woodcock and television personalityArt Linkletter , bought Formula 409. Harrell, Woodcock & Linkletter bought it for $30,000 and took it national. Linkletter also promoted the product in television commercials. The company eventually took Formula 409 to a 55 percent share of the spray-cleaner market, and six years later, Harrell, Woodcock & Linkletter sold the company to Clorox for $7 million. [http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/1997/12/22/smallb5.html] [http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/1996/10/21/smallb3.html]A 1991 song by Green Day from their album 1,039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours is titled "409 in your coffeemaker".Fact|date=September 2008
Seattle based indie band Death Cab for Cutie mentions the product in their song "What Sarah Said".Fact|date=September 2008
In 2008 Detroit rock band
Electric Six named a song after the product on their fifth albumFlashy .Fact|date=September 2008External links
* [http://www.formula409.com/ Official site]
References
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