How to tell a 2-way mirror

[Enid]

Do you know how to determine if a mirror is 2-way or not? A policewoman who travels all over the U.S. giving seminars and techniques for businesswomen passed this on.

There have been cases of people installing 2-way mirrors in female changing rooms. It is very difficult to positively identify the surface by looking at it.

So, how do we determine with any amount of certainty what type of mirror we are looking at?

Just conduct this simple test: Place the tip of your fingernail against the reflective surface and if there is a GAP between your fingernail and the image of the nail, then it is a GENUINE mirror. However, if your fingernail DIRECTLY TOUCHES the image of your nail, then BEWARE! IT IS A 2-WAY MIRROR!

So remember, every time you see a mirror, do the "fingernail test." It doesn't cost you anything.

REMEMBER. No space, leave the place.

Ladies: Share this with your girlfriends, sisters, daughters, etc.

Men: Share this with your wives, daughters, daughters-in-law, mothers,
girlfriends and/or friends.

 

[crescendo69]

Has anyone here found a two-way mirror yet? Is this lawsuit material?

 

[B_subgirrl]

Thanks Enid! Such a simple test!

I now have an irresistible urge to go around testing every mirror I come across - have just tested three in our house, despite KNOWING they aren't two-way!

 

[HiddenLacey]

Ha! I just found myself in my bathroom *which I knew wasn't two-way* doing the fingernail test.

What a great piece of information, though I'm not sure where I would be changing in front of a mirror in a public place other than *ew* a dressing room. The idea of that is so creepy and disgusting.

 

[Enid]

Has anyone here found a two-way mirror yet? Is this lawsuit material?

I searched "two-way mirror" and "lawsuit" and found this:

Attorneys Tom Riley Law Firm, P.L.C. Cedar Rapids Iowa IA Products Liability Law Workers' Compensation Law Personal Injury -- Plaintiff Professional Malpractice Law Lawyers

Another company called Consolidated installed video cameras and audio listening devices behind two-way mirrors in the restrooms at the Mira Loma terminal in the year 2000.

Incidentally, I did a little more research:

Some companies in the window-glass and mirror trade call them "two-way mirrors" and some call them "one-way mirrors" — they both refer to a product known as Mirropane.

Here are some other ways to identify Mirropane from an ordinary, second-surface mirror. Simply turn the lights off in the room, then place a bright flashlight against the mirror surface. If there is a hidden chamber behind the mirror, the flashlight will illuminate it, and since you're in a darkened room, you'll see the hidden chamber.

Even a pen-light will work for this test, though not nearly as well. If you are in a room (such as a changing room) where you cannot turn off the lights on your side, if you hold your eyes near to the glass surface and cup your hands around them on either side to eliminate most of the light from your visual field, you ought to be able to see through the treated glass, as Mirropane will permit about a 12 percent passage of light (from the lit side to the hidden chamber, if there is one).

 

[B_Hickboy]

We will fuck the posterity in their.

 

[bananaclubcock]

Thanks, that's a helpful hint. I've heard of bathrooms in business hotels in repressive countries having mirrors with a rectangular section that never seemed to get steamed from a hot shower...

 

[MoneyForNothing]

What places are found to have them? I can imagine maybe some mom and pop slob tourist B&B doing that. Otherwise it doesn't make sense.

 

[TinyPrincess]

Otherwise it doesn't make sense.

Trust me - you're being monitored more than you think - and not only by 2-way mirrors :redface:

 

[VernalTiger]

Another company called Consolidated installed video cameras and audio listening devices behind two-way mirrors in the restrooms at the Mira Loma terminal in the year 2000.

Can you imagine being the poor bastard that has to review all that footage? 99.9% of it would be crapping, vomiting, urinating, changing tampons and picking noses.

 

[Enid]

What places are found to have them? I can imagine maybe some mom and pop slob tourist B&B doing that. Otherwise it doesn't make sense.

As a theft prevention measure, many retail stores use cameras to monitor fitting rooms. This practice is on the rise, due to improved technology and the availability of smaller and less expensive cameras. Two-way mirrors are also used for this purpose in some stores. And in some states, it is perfectly legal to monitor the dressing room of a retail store by camera or two way mirror. In other states the practice is banned.

There are only 13 states in the U.S.A. that do not allow cameras in places of privacy (this includes bathrooms, locker rooms, hotel rooms, and dressing rooms). These states are: South Dakota, New Hampshire, Michigan, Maine, Minnesota, Utah, Kansas, Delaware, Hawaii, Georgia, California, Arkansas and Alabama.

 

[Calboner]

I find it surprising that they can't just put the mirroring on the inside of the glass pane, just as is done on an ordinary mirror. But I guess that would make the pane reflect the other way.

Some companies in the window-glass and mirror trade call them "two-way mirrors" and some call them "one-way mirrors" — they both refer to a product known as Mirropane.

Neither term makes perfect sense. "Two-way mirror" would describe a pane of glass that reflects in both directions, while "one-way mirror" would describe an ordinary mirror, which reflects in only one direction. The product under discussion is a pane of glass that reflects in one direction and is transparent in the other. Between the two terms available, "two-way mirror" seems to me the better fit: the thing works in two ways, even though it's only a mirror in one way.