January 17th, 2006
How To Detect a 2-Way Mirror
By Alice Hill
RealTechNews
Most people who visit this blog often know I travel a lot, and that means checking in and out of a lot of hotel rooms. Between the horror stories I could tell of sheets full of body hair, and non-smoking rooms with cigar smoke blasting through the bathroom vent, and on and on, it just goes with the territory. But the biggest fear is the urban myth or is that the dreaded fear of the 2-way mirror. Are there rooms in hotels and changing rooms that have them, and how can you tell? To those who travel too much or just wonder how to detect a 2-way mirror, we proudly present this handy how-to.
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. 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.
More Details on 2-Way Mirrors < --Detailed
Source: About.com
Brendan says:
This is a myth.
http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/mirror.asp
Please don’t spread lies.
January 17th, 2006 at 3:16 am
Ron says:
RTFA. He announces it’s an urban legend aka Myth. However, the method for detecting a 2 way mirror is legit, at least on some of the cheaper ones.
January 17th, 2006 at 4:33 am
Bossplot says:
Please explain the basic science behind this detection technique. It sounds folky.
January 17th, 2006 at 6:14 am
Tommy Thomas says:
As far as I know all that is needed is a room that is darker than the bathroom, changing room, etc and a partialy mirrored peice of glass. It is similar to windows on a house, you can’t see in during the day because more light is reflecting off of the window than is passing through. You will sometimes see in banks that someone will turn a light on in a room with a partially mirrored window and you will see them, to them it will appear as if the window is now a mirror on their side. It is very late so I hope this made sense.
January 17th, 2006 at 6:44 am
David Johnston says:
A normal mirror has a non-reflective layer of glass on top of it. With a 2-way mirror, the reflective layer is on or very close to the surface of the sheet. That’s why the gap would show up. You may also be able to see through them if there is more light on the reverse side than there is on yours.
January 17th, 2006 at 7:07 am
David Langdon says:
This won’t detect a more subtle way of spying through a mirror. If you scratch away a small section of a normal mirror backing, you can peer through it. The mirror can then be mounted on a wall with a hole in it. This will only be detected if there is light shining through the backside.
This ws shown on some news show a few years ago…
January 17th, 2006 at 8:20 am
Mikey says:
I swear this is true. Snopes may know something about it as well.
Alice, I won’t outright name the chain, but I’ll NEVER sleep there again. The perverts would peep in on you via the maintenance tunnel between the rooms, by way of a tiny peephole in the big mirror by the sink/tub area. They’d enter the tunnel, remove a 6″ circle of wallboard (with a knife) and remove a tiny portion of the mirror silvering by scratching it off the glass. Instant peephole.
It was discovered by a customer when he saw a pinprick of light leaking through the peephole -from the maintenance tunnel side.
Very obvious, and very stupid.
OK, OK. ONE single clue as to who the hotel was:
“I’m not a rocket scientist, but I did sleep in a…”
January 17th, 2006 at 8:32 am
Frank Fujita says:
I work at a University where we have “2-way” mirrors installed to assist in observing and videotaping behavior. For these mirrors at least, the test above would detect them.
January 17th, 2006 at 10:06 am
Alice says:
Mikey - you have to reveal the name of the chain. That is SO horrifying.
January 17th, 2006 at 10:35 am
Jimmy says:
Sounds like a Holiday Inn Express from the clue.
January 17th, 2006 at 1:45 pm
Charles says:
ok, wait. Are we talking about one single location of that hotel, or a company wide problem? I’m all about revealing the wrong-doings of business and corporations, but I also hate to see them penalized for the actions of a few specific employees.
And yeah, hotels are nasty. Even if you spend a lot per night. There’s just a certain amount of personal denial that you have to maintain.
January 17th, 2006 at 6:50 pm
Dave says:
You can also identify “First surface” mirrors, which are used in high-end optics (lasers, for instance) to eliminate the “ghost” reflection off the glass, with this method.
But then, that’s not very likely going to happen in a hotel.
What I always did to “2-way” mirrors was cup my hands around my eyes, forming a mini darkroom, and most of the time I could see through them just fine. It helps to be in a private place or be under the age of 12 when you do this, though.
January 17th, 2006 at 7:21 pm
Mikey says:
Yes it was a Holiday Inn, and it was the old style version that had locations over most of the US. A further description of tunnel area was the plumbing and A/C maintenance corridor on EACH floor of the 2 or 3 floor building.
Make no mistake about this, it was a very real situation (huge local news here) and it was probably the reason Holiday Inn has rebuilt the majority of their hotels. The old style building had pop and ice machines at each end of each floor. Between the ice machines, centered in the wall (equal distance from front parking lot and rear parking lot) was the door to the “tunnel”.
I believe several lawsuits were filed, and settled. However, that doesn’t give anyone who stayed there and didn’t know of the problem much comfort.
It doesn’t comfort me that I stayed there and didn’t know.
Of course, I ain’t much to look at….
January 18th, 2006 at 7:23 am
Alice says:
That is SO creepy. I always wonder about the red light on “smoke detectors” and if they are actually web cams. But then I get more scared that I am getting WAY too paranoid.
January 18th, 2006 at 7:28 am
Closet Organizer says:
Closet Organizer
Closet Organizer
July 16th, 2006 at 10:04 pm
Gas Fireplaces says:
Gas Fireplaces
Gas Fireplaces
July 18th, 2006 at 12:23 am
Changing Table says:
Changing Table
Changing Table
July 19th, 2006 at 3:12 am
Virgin Atlantic says:
Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic
July 28th, 2006 at 12:37 am
Radisson says:
Radisson
Radisson
August 1st, 2006 at 4:56 am
Hammock says:
Hammock
Hammock
August 3rd, 2006 at 10:20 pm
Six Sigma says:
Six Sigma
Six Sigma
August 7th, 2006 at 4:34 am