[venivdvici]

Ha! Industrial spy a la The Three Stooges!

Originally Posted by wa2ise

Oh, if a tube radio or TV set hasn't been operated in a long while, dust accumulated on its tubes will produce a weak burnt smell, very similar to the smell you get when you turn the house heat on first time a cold snap happens in Autumn. The dust on the radiators making the smell. But the tubes for the most part don't care, they will operate just fine. Unless the dust is literally 1/8 inch or more thick...

As for the faulty filter caps, about ten years ago there was some industrial spying one cap company in Taiwan I think it was, had stolen what they thought was the competitor's secret recipe for the special sauce used to make capacitors. And they started using it to make their caps. Only problem was what they stole was a recipe for some research and development cap experiments that did not contain materials to extend cap lifetime, maybe so the lab scientists of the competitor company had intended to test various new such materials to add to the recipe that was stolen. The evil spying and stealing company made lots of faulty caps that ended up in things like computer motherboards and power supplies, causing a lot of early failures in several major computer companies' products... This could easily have happened in the USA back in the 50's, as people around the world are more similar in most respects than the small stuff like what they look like or like to have for dinner.