# Check out this toilet **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 21, 2004, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-out-this-toilet/256205 "2004-07-21T17:10:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-out-this-toilet/256205/21 "2004-07-22T15:19:42Z")
> [@bughunter](#): > > My first thought that there would be two extremes: those who have shy bladders and couldn’t go in there if they wanted to, and those who have exhibitionist streaks and would love to let loose “in plain view.” > > My second thought was… “gee that would make a great ‘wanking blind’ for pervs.” > > My third thought was… “isn’t that a prison toilet?” > > My fourth thought was… “how dark does it have to be outside to defeat the 2-way mirrors?” > > Which one of those was your thought?? #2. That would add a lot of excitement for when wanking becomes routine. I’d love to stand outside that thing and just laugh and point when someone is in there. ---
**Author:** ![miamouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ad7895/32.png) [@miamouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miamouse)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-out-this-toilet/256205/22 "2004-07-22T18:12:08Z")
OK, if light doesnt pass through, so people can see into it from the outside, how can the cast shadow be possible in the picture on the right? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-out-this-toilet/256205/23 "2004-07-22T18:26:13Z")
**miamouse:** It lets most light _in_, but very little of the light _out_. Kind of like a photonic roach motel. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-out-this-toilet/256205/24 "2004-07-22T18:36:37Z")
I once peed in the bathroom of a nightclub in Hong Kong that overlooked the city. You’re basically standing right in front of a floor-to-ceiling window a dozen or two floors up, letting loose. It was fun. ---
**Author:** ![Tuco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tuco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuco)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-out-this-toilet/256205/25 "2004-07-22T18:54:15Z")
I’ve heard of one of these in the UK somewhere; someone on another message board was saying about it. Apparently there was a queue for it once, then a couple came out to a round of applause! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-out-this-toilet/256205/26 "2004-07-22T18:55:52Z")
You could always defeat the one-way glass with the didge used in Arthur C. Clarke’s **Childhood’s End** (and the short story that section wass based on): Put a bright flashlight right up against the glass. If it’s not a really sunny day out, you should see something. Why you’d want to is beyond me. I think if they were forced to use a toilet in which the enclosure seemed transparent from the inside, 70% of people would have their various orifices automatically close up and refuse to function, eveb if told they were invisible from the outside. so I suppose it’s an interesting work of art, from that viewpoint. ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-out-this-toilet/256205/27 "2004-07-22T18:57:53Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > I read about a [restaurant in New York](http://64.227.165.55/restaurants/peep.shtml) recently that has a similar deal – except you can watch people eating while you’re in the bathroom. > > Apparently there’s a hotel in Australia (Brisbane, if I remember right–) that takes it a step further – the Men’s has a trough-style urinal that’s one-way glass, looking out onto the bar area. You pee against the glass and gawk at the other patrons swilling their beer. (Any Aussie Dopers who can elaborate on that? Sounds like a hoot.) There was a bar in Lawrence that had a one way mirror over the bar, so if a guy was standing at the urinal, they’d see the bar patrons while they peed. The place was sold and the new owners removed it. ---
**Author:** ![AngelicGemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@AngelicGemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelicGemma)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-out-this-toilet/256205/28 "2004-07-22T19:39:52Z")
Part of me thinks it’s cool. But part if me would be too paronoid to use it. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-out-this-toilet/256205/29 "2004-07-22T20:54:04Z")
> [@Jeff Olsen](#): > > She’s the architectural world’s version of a performace artist. I get it! ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-out-this-toilet/256205/30 "2004-07-22T21:40:48Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > Check out this [toilet](http://www.snopes.com/photos/arts/toilet.asp). > > Are the guys thinking what I’m thinking. . . I’m thinking I’m not liking having a toilet that close to the plumbing for the sink. But that’s just me. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-out-this-toilet/256205/31 "2004-07-22T22:14:28Z")
I think it’s a pretty interesting idea, and I’d use it just for the novelty of it, but one concern: I don’t see that it has a lot of ventilation. I bet it gets hotter than hell in there on a warm, sunny day. And don’t tell me London doesn’t get those days. 🙂 Last time I was there, it was sunny and 80 for a whole week (or seemed like it at the time.) ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-out-this-toilet/256205/32 "2004-07-22T22:23:50Z")
This is probably the best thread title I’ve ever seen. Also, do you know how much trouble kids are going to cause by waiting for someone to go inside and then run up, pounding the glass, shouting, “we can see you in there?” ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-out-this-toilet/256205/33 "2004-07-22T23:29:15Z")
> [@Tuco](#): > > I’ve heard of one of these in the UK somewhere; someone on another message board was saying about it. > Apparently there was a queue for it once, then a couple came out to a round of applause! That’s probably the same one. The one in the link is in London, despite claims of it being in Switzerland. > [@Ogre](#): > > I don’t see that it has a lot of ventilation. Maybe it’s in the roof. There doesn’t seem to be any pictures from that angle. **Cisco** : 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-out-this-toilet/256205/34 "2004-07-23T07:16:34Z")
Whoa! We tried to defeat the weight-sensors in the German “City-Toiletten” to save a couple euro cents, and it couldn’t close after one of us hopped in after the other. We stared at it for a couple of minutes, and it still wouldn’t close. So I said “Screw it, it’s just like a urinal,” and I went in, pissed, and then came out. It closed and cleaned then. Damn German engineering 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/check-out-this-toilet/256205.md?page=1)