Another ‘Name That Story’ thread! Think I might have read it in the '70s, surely no later than the '80s. Story involved two scientists (or chemists, inventors of some sort) who were working on a new type of plating (like silver?) that would be much cheaper to produce and essentially replace silver plating (or some type of plating, I think – I’m sure I’m getting some of the details wrong). For some reason, throughout the process so far, the substance in question had remained submerged in some kind of liquid.
Once the plating/covering process had concluded, they hauled it up out of the liquid–and found it gave off an extremely overpowering stench. I mean, it spread through the neighborhood within seconds, and very nearly knocked the inventors unconscious with its intensity. I think in the end they managed to get it back into the liquid, dreams of riches dashed.
Hopefully that’s enough detail to jog someone’s memory. Setting the clock for the answer in 10…9…8…