| How to Detect a Two-Way Mirror | |||
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| Netlore Archive | |||
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Email text contributed by Tracy Timmer, 12 May 1999:
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HOW TO DETECT A 2-WAY MIRROR When we visit bathrooms, hotel rooms, changing rooms, etc., how many of you know for sure that the seemingly ordinary mirror hanging on the wall is a real mirror, or actually a 2-way mirror (i.e. they can see you, but you can't see them)? There have been many cases of people installing 2-way mirrors in female changing rooms. It is very difficult to positively identify the surface by just looking at it. It's time to get paranoid. So, how do we determine with any amount of certainty? 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, for it is a 2-way mirror! So if not at home and changing before a mirror, do the "fingernail test". It doesn't cost you anything. It is simple to do, and it might save you from getting "visually raped"! Share this with your girlfriends. |
For the sticklers among us:
Some companies in the window-glass and mirror trade call them "two-way mirrors" and some call them "one-way mirrors" — don't ask me why; there seems to be no distinction between the two names. They both refer to a product known as Mirropane. Promotional literature from the LOF Architectural Specialty Glass company states that the product registered under the name "Mirropane E.P. Transparent Mirror" is "formed using LOF's patented chemical vapor deposition process on 1/4" Grey tint glass." As to exactly how that works or even what reflective metal is involved, it seems to be a trade secret, although the good folks at Morehouse Glass in Portland, Oregon suggest that tin or nickle are the likeliest choices. It's probably not silver, as suggested in the missive under scrutiny. The product can be heat-treated for maximum strength and can also be laminated to make it scratch resistant (so if, say, some nut decided to use this product for a mirror in a changing room, it would not be easily scratched by a belt buckle or other light brushings-up-against). The product can also be made considerably bullet-proof, in case you are thinking about buying some for the watchtower in the maximum security prison you've just had built.
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Comments by Peter Kohler: I'll tell you straightaway that, despite the overemphatic tone used in the above text (which is of course what keeps it in circulation), the fingernail test does work as described in most situations. But allow me to clear up a few fuzzy points involved, as well as suggest several other possible ways to identify a two-way mirror.
