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The corner of my living room where I keep one of my Predictas always smells a little bit like puke (fainter or stronger, according to the weather) or maybe like someone who hasn't bathed in a while. That's only one of the reasons my old TVs have a low "WAF" (Wife Acceptance Factor.)
From AntiqueRadios.com: the cause is the butyrate plastic used in the cover. This material normally smells like rancid butter, since it is the same family of chemicals in both cases (also present in human body odor). Philco originally masked the odor with a coverup fragrance, but over the years this cover-up has dispersed. It's possible that the odor also could represent an accelerated breakdown of the plastic. It does seem to get worse in warm weather. There is a wide variation in how bad these covers stink. Some don't seem to smell bad at all, and others outright reek. I've noticed in general that the ones that are cracked are the ones that smell the least. On the later model Predictas, Philco supposedly changed the formulation, and those covers seem to have little or no odor, but also seem to be the ones most prone to cracking.
From Wikipedia: Butyric acid (from Greek βούτυρος = butter), also known under the systematic name butanoic acid, is a carboxylic acid with the structural formula CH3CH2CH2-COOH. Salts and esters of butyric acid are known as butyrates or butanoates. Butyric acid is found in rancid butter, parmesan cheese, vomit, and body odor and has an unpleasant smell and acrid taste, with a sweetish aftertaste (similar to ether).
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