The one thing I miss

[oldtvman]

Originally Posted by oldtvsandtoy

Ok got to know, would this not be the case for buying your first b&w too? High cost and not much on?

You have to understand that people's wages weren't that high back in the late 50's and 60's In fact I read where the Rca CT100's price was about the average salary of the American worker. The other problem was when you laid out all that money the number of color shows on was very limited. I remember going thru the tv guide to see what was on in color and those were the shows we watched regardless if we liked them or not. It was a very special time.

[oldtvman]

Originally Posted by oldtvsandtoy

Ok got to know, would this not be the case for buying your first b&w too? High cost and not much on?

To answer your question yes although I wasn't old enough to remember when B and W came out, I'm sure going from radio to tv shows beamed into your living room had a very dramatic effect. But the fact that the developement of color was right along with black and white, which led to the classic battle between Rca and Cbs. But somehow when I was small my dad took me to a tv store and there was some show on in color which was one of the most amazing things I had seen. I guess you had to be there.

[reeferman]

[QUOTE=Jon A.;3111758]Seriously? And did you get that quote from Married With Children?

Busted!
Al Bundy is my idol.
LOL

[Tom S]

I remember un boxing the new sets in the early 70's. Wow the smell takes me back too of the cabinets and the smell of a new set as it heats up. It was like christmas for me. Setting up those sets was a breeze for me. Sure miss that.

[reeferman]

[QUOTE=zeno;3111746]In our shop it was the smell of smoke.

The same at Columbia Appliance in the early 70's. One of the guys would smoke a deck of Luckies during working hours. Non filtered, of course.
After hours when the hard stuff came out is when he did some serious smoking.

[Tom S]

When I fire up my 1960 Color RCA I get that every morning when I watch the news. Love that. Watch all my old shows on it too.

[rca2000]

Originally Posted by Tom S

When I fire up my 1960 Color RCA I get that every morning when I watch the news. Love that. Watch all my old shows on it too.

I guess the you KNOW what I mean. No ONE ELSE seems to. It is a rather "uinique" smell-- the "RCA SMELL". not sure what causes it either.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by Colly0410

The Sony colour set my Mam (or Mom, vowels move around in regional English English) had a characteristic warmish smell, quite pleasant.

Until you mentioned that, I had forgot it, but I do remember a specific smell from new Sony color TV sets around 1979 when I got my first new one (and first new color TV set of any kind). It was probably a mix of "that transistor radio smell" with the glue smell from the semi-real wood cabinets of their larger tabletop models of the time.

[Tubejunke]

Originally Posted by reeferman

I miss 8 track tapes.
LOL

How many do you want? I have mostly Rock music. I have a nice component deck as well to go with the tapes. I will add some smoke smell if the price is right!

[jstout66]

Cool thread, I remember unboxing new Chromacolor 2's in the late 70's.
I LOVED the smell of them out of the box, and of course the showroom floor on a Saturday when they were all fired up, all tuned into a Nebraska-Oklahoma game.

[Jon A.]

The only "RCA smell" I recall is the funny smell I got when I fired up a couple of high-mileage sets. They didn't stay with me long. A beat-up mid 80s XL-100 console and a '77 12" B&W, neither a big loss.

Originally Posted by Tubejunke

How many do you want? I have mostly Rock music. I have a nice component deck as well to go with the tapes. I will add some smoke smell if the price is right!

I'm glad I got those Ford decks when I did, they just keep climbing in price.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by oldtvman

To answer your question yes although I wasn't old enough to remember when B and W came out, I'm sure going from radio to tv shows beamed into your living room had a very dramatic effect. But the fact that the developement of color was right along with black and white, which led to the classic battle between Rca and Cbs. But somehow when I was small my dad took me to a tv store and there was some show on in color which was one of the most amazing things I had seen. I guess you had to be there.

I was ten years old when color TV came out in 1955.
Every time I went to the stores, that sold them, there was never a color program on. Like I said before, limited programing. They would have the set on, but running a B&W program
They had all the B&W sets on and the picture was superior to the color sets.
They also didn't have that old looking small round screen.

[Sandy G]

Yeah, & remember how the B/W programs shown on an early color set were often a weird, purplish sort of color, & had the funky green & blue outlines around 'em ? But down here in Bugtussle, most color sets were sold by appliance dealers/furniture stores, & the guy who set 'em up was likely NOT overly well-trained in PROPERLY aligning one, or setting it up.

[etype2]

[/IMG]

Originally Posted by DavGoodlin

It would be nice to get a picture of a bunch of 21" color sets in a showroom on this thread.

Color TV - like automatic transmission and free long distance, is taken for granted anymore.

What I miss is that experience of looking at all the CRT sets in one place, many places had them on but the three places I worked that sold them did not do that like the department stores.

Again, i miss THAT SMELL To quote one of my favorite bands from the 70s'

"oo-oh that smell, caint cha smell that smell,oo-oh that smell, the smell that surrounds tubes"

Can't produce a photo, but saved this:

The ad is from a department store in downtown Milwaukee. There one could see all the brands together, such as RCA, Zenith, Magnavox, Sylanvia, Philco, etc; etc;. It was an exciting time. I researched color sets starting in 1965, driving all over town from store to store to trying to view every possible set, but the best way was in the department stores where one could see many brands side by side for comparison. Ended up buying an RCA 19 inch CTC 19 consolette in 1966 brand new. Very exciting because it was my first color set and the new programming season went 100% color in prime time.

I remember the new set smell. Very distinctive, fresh, new smell. I think it was from the rubber wire insulation. It was also in the new high end audio equipment I purchased.

Most recently, when I found my first Sony KVX 370 Indextron several years ago, it had that same "new smell". I thought "this is going to be special" and it was. :-)

Found this: [IMG][/IMG] Courtesy: Stock Photo

[IMG][/IMG] Courtesy Glenn Edward Waters

[IMG][/IMG]

These last three photos do not represent the look and feel of my shopping experience.

[NoPegs]

I've successfully taught my other half to recognize and seek out the "This is legitimately vintage electronic equipment in fair condition." smell, since she and her family go out to odd places where our kind of things can turn up. She's had a few hits so far, but none of them proved worthy of purchasing.

Now I just need to teach her the difference between:

"Old electronics operating mostly normally."
"Old electronics that are mildly unhappy but probably OK for evaluation purposes."
"Old electronics that are extremely upset and are likely to fail very soon."
"Somebody just plugged it in fresh out of Grandma's basement and wrecked it."
"New electronics that have packed it in beyond economical repair."
"Hot resistor."
"Overloaded transformer."
"Over-current condition in PVC jacketed wire."
"Prolapsed Electrolytic."
"Those bloody annoying tantalums!"
"You failed to concentrate on where the operating end of the soldering iron is at all times and it just met some of your long beautiful hair."


I know what a recently failed selenium rectifier smells like, but I would prefer not to actually teach her that one... I'll let her do that class module as homework.


Back to the original subject:

I think the actual smell is some combination of the plasticizers used in phenolic parts, rosin flux, adhesives, and something involved in how they printed manuals back then. Could also be plasticizers in the hook-up wire. I don't think it makes a difference if the unit is wrapped in fake leatherette, painted, or hammer-tone finished, or at least I can't notice a difference.


I should see if there's a mass-spec at a local Educational Edifice that could possibly analyze it. I'd seriously be interested in reproducing it. On the one hand it could be misused by adding it to a not genuine electronic device. On the other I'd be curious what kind of people it would attract when used cologne/perfume style. I may be onto something here. I'll bottle it and name it "Thermionic Musk." Who's with me?



On a side note, I think I just had a "the honeymoon is over" moment with Chrome. Seriously, neither plasticizer nor phenolic were recognized as legit words? Plasticize and Plasticine are both fine you say?