Word: mercaptan
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Having made a specialty of the subject, the authors have acquired a certain affection for bad smells. They tell with considerable sympathy how smelly chemicals often save human lives. For example, when a mine has an accident, the operators often dump ethyl mercaptan (which smells like rotting cabbage, garlic, onions and sewer gas) into its air supply. The awful stench circulates quickly through every passage and forcefully warns the miners to run for their lives...