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3M Security Glass Ad

21 Feb 2005 by Jason Fried

3M puts its money where its mouth is.

3M Security Glass

That’s great advertising (yes, that’s real money in there).

144 comments so far (Post a Comment)

21 Feb 2005 | Chris from Scottsdale said...

I wonder what would happen if James Bond came along with a machine gun?

21 Feb 2005 | Jamie said...

I wonder how that would stand up against my car driving into it (or the one that I just carjacked)?

21 Feb 2005 | Lucas said...

Don't you guys think that Q has already tried everything you can think of to test this glass?

21 Feb 2005 | mastermind said...

I would buy a grinding wheel and saw off that pole it's connected to. Then i would load it into the back of a pickup and drive straight to my chop shop.

21 Feb 2005 | Brendan said...

There was only $500 of real currency, the rest is fake. A security guard was present for the duration of the promotion. People were told they could only use their feet and would not get to keep the money if they were successful.

21 Feb 2005 | Gordo said...

Actually, the bills on the top are real...underneath they are fake. This PR stunt/promo was done not to far from where I live. What was entertaining was the guy they filmed on the news who took a 30 ft run at it and kicked it as hard as he could. His eyes watered up and he said something like "wow, is that tough". The producer figures he had to have broken every toe on his foot.

The PR company that staged this deserves and award. This promo got international attention.

GFC

21 Feb 2005 | Mark said...

A great advertising gimmick, sure. But not really a good technical demonstration of the strength of the glass. All that paper in there is acting as a buffer and reducing the space vunerable to the initial blow - thereby making the glass "appear" that much more impenetrable.

Take the money out, and then do the demonstration. That'll impress me as a buyer of security windows.

Which begs the question. It's great advertising for those of us outside the industry. Wonder how effective it was for people in the construction / window / security industry?

21 Feb 2005 | Brendan said...

Someone was able to get it open by kicking the latch.

21 Feb 2005 | Chief Boot Knocka said...

Perfect opportunity to PUT EM ON DA GLASS!!!!!

21 Feb 2005 | Fippy said...

I want a saftey glass house filled with money, and lots of stuff, and stuff.

21 Feb 2005 | Jason said...

A great advertising gimmick, sure. But not really a good technical demonstration of the strength of the glass.

Don't be sour. This is an amazing concept and I'd be surprised if the people responsible don't get awards for it.

Technical demonstration? Sir, this ad is meant to create buzz, get people talking about their new glass. Tech specs come later when professionals inquire about the glass, or the glass appears in a trade show.

All that paper in there is acting as a buffer and reducing the space vunerable to the initial blow - thereby making the glass "appear" that much more impenetrable.

Hmm ... glass that appears impenetrable ... gee, don't you think that's the point of the ad? Paper is not a buffer.

Thanks for posting this SvN.

21 Feb 2005 | beto said...

Fake money or not, that ad wouldn't last on my hometown a New York minute before it gets crack opened with explosives or something.

Gotta love the Third World.

21 Feb 2005 | paul said...

where is that? i think it's vancouver, but i'm not sure. i'm pretty sure i've seen it though.

21 Feb 2005 | Jeff Werner said...

The curve of the roof support, of what I'm assuming is a bus stop, looks like the ones used in Greater Vancouver. Can't determine what building is in the background. Would have liked to see this ad. How long was it up for, where was it located, and was there only one?

21 Feb 2005 | Jeff Werner said...

Speak of the devil....just got this link via the Graphic Designer's of Canada listserve...screen grabs of the 3M ad and its TV coverage. It was Vancouver, Broughton and Pender. It also shows a pic of a similar 3M urnial ad.

21 Feb 2005 | Matt Hampel said...

Jason: I'm sure they won an award. /Donald Norman

Anyways, very impressive. I'm proud of the 2 3M shares I own. And I wonder how soon videos will surface...

21 Feb 2005 | Ted said...

Could Superman break into it? I bet he could. Unless its made with Kryptonite

21 Feb 2005 | dmr said...

"Technical demonstration? Sir, this ad is meant to create buzz, get people talking about their new glass."

Yeah, because all great products need gimicks and hype. Is 3M selling security glass, or the idea of security glass? It's damn hard to kick in a car windshield, does that make it security glass? No.

Why not put a real person behind the glass and take a swing at the glass then. Make it about an actual situation and ditch the cash.

I'd like to know more about the target and purpose of this campaign.

21 Feb 2005 | John Zeratsky said...

Where was it?

22 Feb 2005 | Peeteriz said...

If that were real money, then it needs just a guy with a decent truck to pull the whole case out at 4 AM, and then work at it someplace else.

After all, there was this case in Moscow where guys just came with construction equipment and tore an ATM out of the wall and drove away.

22 Feb 2005 | Darrel said...

People were told they could only use their feet and would not get to keep the money if they were successful.

Kind of defeats the entire point of it, doesn't it?

22 Feb 2005 | Justin said...

Kind of defeats the entire point of it, doesn't it?

Not if the point is to get people talking about it - this is PR, not a technical demonstration.

22 Feb 2005 | terror said...

COOL

If anybody give me ADRESS where it state I-ve give him 30%

22 Feb 2005 | Anthony said...

Congratulations to 3M's PR! It's working, but not for Moscow...

22 Feb 2005 | Hammer said...

I'd like to know more about the target and purpose of this campaign.

I suspect their purpose is branding 3M, not simply selling security glass.

Next time I see a 3M product in a store, I'll undoubtfully think of this campaign, and my good feelings towards 3M in general will make me pick their product.

22 Feb 2005 | Bogie said...

Security glass is not totally impregnable. In the Millennium Dome robbery of 2000, thieves tried to steal a diamond set behind this type of material. They used a high powered nail gun to blast holes in the glass to steal the gem.

If there wasn't a security guard on duty at the 3M advert, someone would have walked off with the loot.

22 Feb 2005 | Selo said...

will take all... with glass

22 Feb 2005 | Arne Gleason said...

Good attention getter, but no-sale for me. Dupont has the Bishop of Rome behind their glass (thats my standard). Perhaps 3M should find their own preeminent customer willing to be boxed up in their product and towed through a truly hostile crowd thats been armed with a variety of power tools. Now that would be an attention getter, celebrity endorsement, and a really compelling product demonstration all at once (likely with lots of free news coverage).

22 Feb 2005 | Старик С. said...

А нафик мне бить их стекло. Я бы рамку аккуратно раздербанил...

22 Feb 2005 | KOSHY said...

Рамка у такого стекла обычно пулестойкая сварная и штапик на болтах - легче стекло разбить:-)

22 Feb 2005 | kenny said...

mastermind,
If you stole the whole bus stop, 3M would still be the winner. If a crook rather takes the whole stucture it means he's aware that it's easier than to break the glass =)

22 Feb 2005 | woow said...

\o/

22 Feb 2005 | Dan said...

People were told they could only use their feet and would not get to keep the money if they were successful.

>>Kind of defeats the entire point of it, doesn't it?

I'm sure neither 3M nor the ad agency would be thrilled watching people tee off on their display with sledgehammers and machine guns. ;D

22 Feb 2005 | coke said...

basi mizernicite
cokeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
kiss my ass

22 Feb 2005 | zipo bibrok said...

oy you mother fuckers fuck fu* fuck fuckers vote for me, im the fucken j

22 Feb 2005 | Justin Perkins said...

>>Unless its made with Kryptonite

Then you could just open it with a Bic Pen.

22 Feb 2005 | brian said...

Most of you are analyzing this a bit much. It's like saying Bud Light is not really the best light beer because their ads are good. That is not the point. The point is that the concept behind the ads is brilliant. End of story.

22 Feb 2005 | myself... said...

... need all the money!!!

22 Feb 2005 | h said...

I've seen something similar a few years a go in a science museum. Only difference was that instead of money, there were bees and a 'slice of hive'. The bees had a tube connecting their transparent hive to the outdoors.

I'd like to see someone try to kick that.

22 Feb 2005 | ebem gringovci said...

haha, tuj verno nyama da ocelee dulgo zad jeleznata stena :)

22 Feb 2005 | h said...

hmm, it's a great way to get attention for the product; but it doesn't take long to realise that your average thief will use a hammer, not their foot. if people were allowed to take a crack at it with a sledge, THEN you'd have a major demo :)

plus, they pulled the punch by saying people wouldn't get to keep the money. that's not putting your money where your mouth is.

still, the idea of advertising is to get the product to the top of peoples' minds. so, on that count it's very successful.

22 Feb 2005 | writingstatic said...

People need to stop talking a lot of shit and just appreciate the creativity behind a campaign like this.

22 Feb 2005 | Strunk said...

Real money? That would be around $70,000. I can't imagine they could put up many of these ads if the money were real.

In NY, the whole bus shelter would be gone by morning.

22 Feb 2005 | Dan said...

Peeteriz:

That same thing happenned in my hometown (rural Pennsylvania, US). A local store had an ATM that sat in front of a plate glass window (the stand-alone kind of ATM, not the ones set in concrete walls). Apparently, some guys drove a pickup truck up, broke the window, and threw a chain around the ATM before driving off.

It happenned twice, actually, before they decided to put the ATM somewhere else.

23 Feb 2005 | Justin said...

I wonder when they will invent safety people.

23 Feb 2005 | kevin said...

Pretty much everybody in Vancouver heard about this in the local news. A bunch of the TV stations sent camera crews down to film people trying to break the glass. They got a bunch of construction workers to do their best to break the glass. I eblieve the rules were you wouldn't use a car to run the bus stop over etc... but suposidly when people took a bat to the glass it didn't even break.

In the end one guy stomped the frame around the glass and broke the latch so the case could be opened. Of course the security guard across the street was over there pretty quickly.

Good advertising, even if they'd lost the ~$500 they had a great deal of TV covereage and even some good shots of a guy kicking the glass on the front of the local papers.

Thankfully here in Vancouver we don't have to worry about people using expolosives to take out our bus stops :)

23 Feb 2005 | Elias said...

explosives? kicks? grinding wheels? don't be silly. a nice big industrial diamond - say pointy and on a rind - and ten minutes and i'll have all that fake money in my monopoly set. there's a reason thieves wear diamonds, and it's not for show.

23 Feb 2005 | ixy said...

Cool.

23 Feb 2005 | peter said...

I use that glass to protect my sperm. Safe DNA for safe descendants

23 Feb 2005 | Oheee said...

Joder, me compraba yo un misil anti-tanques y vamos si reviento el cristalito de los huevos,. jejeje

23 Feb 2005 | oliver said...

where does this ad stand?

23 Feb 2005 | I didnt say that i said...

bruce lee could break that glass

23 Feb 2005 | Brian Andersen said...

This is so brilliant.

23 Feb 2005 | Paolo said...

I'd say this would be even more impressive if they hosted this display after a major sporting event in England or Ireland.

They'd have to do something about that latch first, though.

23 Feb 2005 | InsolentHalo said...

A few minutes with a jar of glass etching formula and a marker and I'd have a nice big hole in that fu$%6r. Money is mine.

Who needs to hit it? Science m@#rf@#$er.

23 Feb 2005 | An Amethyst said...

23 Feb 2005 | Elias said...

explosives? kicks? grinding wheels? don't be silly. a nice big industrial diamond - say pointy and on a rind - and ten minutes and i'll have all that fake money in my monopoly set. there's a reason thieves wear diamonds, and it's not for show.

I totally Agree, gimmie 2 mins & a good distraction, & I'll liberate those babies :P

23 Feb 2005 | how to crack it said...

how to crack it

the glass might be hard to break indeed, but what about the following attempt to break the window frame? (caution: don't smoke or light fire during the preparation):

1. drill a tiny hole into one window (within the top 2% of the glass's height). drilling the glass (using a diamond drill) should work, only breaking is difficult, usually.
2. drill another tiny hole into the same window (a couple of centimeters above the bank notes)
3. infloat h2 (hydrogen) gas into the top hole (volume: about 1/10th of the total volume between the two windows).
4. seal the top hole (with a chewing gum, wax or similar)
5. stick a long fuze (to ensure you can stay far away enough; at least 20 m) into the lower hole
6. put on protection wear (helmet, protection glasses, shield, gloves, ear plugs). cover behind a wall or inside a building.
7. ensure nobody is in danger (ie. there's nobody within a 20 m radius)
8. light the fuze and watch the blast of the explosion pressing the two glass windows out of the frame

warning: this is for educational purpose only. do not try this unless you really know what you're doing. this is a dangerous procedure which can lead to death.

what you're doing here is a detonating gas reaction:

1 h2 + 0.5 o2 = 1 h2o

don't underestimate the impact, power and bang of the explosion/detonation!!!

oh! and note that the real and fake money might be burnt in the process (low probability). so wait till they put gold coins (don't burn for sure) inside in the next advertising campaign ;)

23 Feb 2005 | Zoidberg said...

I'd be really impressed if they locked David Blaine in there. Really, really impressed. Really.

23 Feb 2005 | Kurt said...

>

How about Bush on his tour of Europe?

23 Feb 2005 | Arne Gleason said...

"just appreciate the creativity behind a campaign like this"

Sorry, I dont see this as being any more creative than 50% of the advertising out there.

The Spark of Genius
A: Whats this stuff good for again?
B: Windows, except it supposed to stop people from getting at your valuable stuff.
C: Maybe we should get you to stand behind a big piece of this in Times Square and invite people to throw bricks at your head, B.
A: Id throw a couplehell you could charge people.
C: Nope, no good you said this was to protect valuable stuff. Youre talking about Bs head here.
D: I know! How about a big pile of gold or jewels?.. and if you break the glass you get to keep it all!
A: We dont have a bottomless budget here peoplethe insurance alone
D: I know! I saw this in a movie once we get a big stack of money, only its mostly just colored paper with a few real bills on the top.
A: The fake money thing sounds good. Can we find a place to do this where people wont go berserk trying to smash this stuff open?

23 Feb 2005 | keith said...

Has it undergone the ultimate test of a glass's security? Namely, having an insurance spokesman run at it as fast as he can to prove that it will not break?

23 Feb 2005 | funkworks said...

Is there ballistics data on this glass? i really doubt it would be able to stop .233+ ammo. and certainly not a 50 cal. so if by "security", 3M means, 'glass that cannot be broken with feet', then yes they got that down. But then you just break the lock or frame. And if its not high caliber rifle proof, whats the point? We already have plenty of glass/lexan that can withstand handgun calibers.

23 Feb 2005 | notanut said...

Maybe just maybe it's a replacement for things like storm windows. Which gives you the "security" of not having to worry about glass shards flying into your eyes when a twig or some strong winds hit your windows. Or maybe it's for really tall buildings so when birds fly into it it doesn't break, but at the same time is thinner and lighter than regular glass making the entire structure lighter......

You could just be Overthinking it

23 Feb 2005 | Arne Gleason said...

"Maybe just maybe it's a replacement for things like storm windows"

I'm thinking it would be good for bus shelters.

23 Feb 2005 | Henry #4 said...

Tow truck... just pull the thing outta the ground like a Houston ATM machine. I'll come apart in my garage.... eventually.


23 Feb 2005 | wes said...

LOL I would like to see them do that in liverpool, some one woudl jsut back a car over it.

23 Feb 2005 | Flintlock said...

This is disgusting! This is even worse than pornography! How can any decent company put something like this on public display??? I think whoever thought of this should be brought before the courts to face punishment.

Flint

23 Feb 2005 | phillip said...

yeah let's see that thing versus my truck

23 Feb 2005 | CHUCK said...

Can anyone spot an engineer's comments here?

Hint - engineers overanylise advertising ideas.

You could give them an ad with a picture of an apple pie in at and by the end of the meeting your ad would feature, as mandatory, a 3 d computer model of the human digestive sytem and its effect on the physical form of the pie over time with tables of variations for temperature, race, previous meal, drinks injested with pie, altitude and speed. Tasty.

23 Feb 2005 | Lazlo Smith said...

Ok this is great ad for Vancouver for at least two reasons I can think of.

1. Being a major port city hard drugs are damn cheap, property crime here is rampant, every house and store front has bars, 20 years ago when I got here this wasn't the case; with our skid row labelled the poorest postal code in Canada, security glass would be a big seller for the well off.

2. If the NHL ever starts up again, and the Canucks make another aborted playoff run, the stores of "Robsonstrasse" might be really happy to have such glass.

24 Feb 2005 | LUEshi said...

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24 Feb 2005 | smart eddy said...

I think they should make the bills out of the glass
then your money would last forever.
huh huh huh

24 Feb 2005 | midgets raping your face said...

It's my ambition to have the largest breasts in the animal sex industry.

24 Feb 2005 | Sandra said...

Okay - to clear things up:

Safety Glass: Glass that won't shatter into a million dangerously sharp pieces on impact. Safety glass is what's used in your car windshield and sliding glass doors. A film is placed over the glass and bonded to it to keep it somewhat together were it to be smashed.

Security Glass: Glass that is resistent to shattering or impact. This is what you have in the case of "hurricane-proof" windows and this ad. Yes, it will hold up to someone kicking it. Yes, it will likely even hold up against a more solid object coming at it with great force or speed (such as a tree branch in 100+ mph hurricane winds). I've seen hurricane glass tested and it's pretty impressive. It holds up to sledgehammers and even bullets (up to .36 caliber).

Does that mean it's completely indestructible? No of course not, and that's not what 3M is trying to say. They're saying that this glass is strong enough to withstand what most typical criminals would be able to do to it. Enough so that they feel pretty safe leaving a pile of cash behind it relatively unguarded. Yes, you could blow the thing up. Yes, you could go at it with a military caliber machine gun. Yes, you could even ram a vehicle at it at great speed. You'd probably break it. But frankly, there's not enough cash there (I'm assuming that even were it all real, it'd all be ones) to offset the cost of any of the "mr. wizard" or "pure brute strength" methods of beating it.

It's security glass people - the stuff behind it is secure... not theft-proof. You'd have a lot more reason to debunk it if they were actually marketing the glass as "indestructible glass"

24 Feb 2005 | bizaro said...

if you were a multi million dollar corperation would you want someone messing themselves up on one of your ads? probably not. the ad is for hype. it got my attention. and i am curious about tech specs. im quite posite that the glass is actually glass and not a polymer like lexan and that it s as stron or stronger than lexan. they only want people kicking it because they want to minimize the risk of someone punching it and breaking their fist and taking up legal action. at any rate not matter what the reasoning was for the rules regarding the ad it was just that. an ad. a device used to promote a new product. a tool to generate excitement. they did a good job.

24 Feb 2005 | adam said...

nobody ever heard of a truck with a winch? I would chain the bar and rip the whole damned thing off, then drag it home and get out the acetylene torch!

24 Feb 2005 | nyfiken said...

kan man inte lsa in robert r00t dr istllet fr alla pengar..!?

24 Feb 2005 | hugo said...

jo, och lsa in nyckeln i en likadan lda en mete drifrn.... nyckeln frn den ldan smlter man ner

24 Feb 2005 | nyfiken said...

lter som en bra id!

24 Feb 2005 | BUTBUT said...

Did 3M make ME any better or richer ? No, so screw them. Yes, it's always about ME ME ME and you know it's about YOU YOU YOU as well.

Thank for your attention

24 Feb 2005 | daemon said...

I wonder what would happen if MacGyver would stop by with a knife, 20 fags and a chewing gum.

24 Feb 2005 | alex said...

how to crack it -

you can't destroy this chamber by exploding hydrogen gas, because hydrogen gas does not explode. your reaction for the equation is correct, but notice that you have more molecules on the product side than the reactant side -- explosions occur because there's more molecules of product than reactant.

Explosion is different from burning. Burning is uncontrolled oxidation of reactant, such as would happen to the hydrogen gas if you reacted it with oxygen (Consider the Hindenberg, that was five billion gallons of hydrogen gas burning, don't you think that if it would have exploded, then everybody filming it would have died, especially since it was not very high off the ground?) Explosions, on the other hand, are merely the near instantaneous jump in pressure due to housing an increased number of molecules in the same volume of space. The more molecules that get realeased in your reaction, the more explosive the compound.

- Alex

24 Feb 2005 | bob marleyink said...

the glass is resistant against explosives

http://products3.3m.com/catalog/ww/en001/security/-/node_GSNBV3V5KCbe/root_GST1T4S9TCgv/vroot_67FS85WMRKge/gvel_Q9XJL3F095gl/theme_ww_securitymarket_3_0/command_AbcPageHandler/output_html

24 Feb 2005 | Ted said...

The Hindenberg burned rather than exploded, I think, because there was no oxygen in with the hydrogen to start with, so it could only react as fast as the air could get in from outside. The explosion method described above specifies that the space not be filled entirely with hydrogen, which allows for a much faster reaction since the oxygen's already there. Admittedly, there's less product than reactant, but there's also a great increase in temperature. Within a fixed space, a temperacture increase causes an increase in air pressure, and that's what breaks the glass, I think. The danger comes from the broken glass that's then flying everywhere.
Also, regarding all this I'll take the thing home and break it in my workshop: That proves nothing. You're not gonna be able to take home someone's house and work on it. Nor are you gonna be firing machine guns to break into someone's house under ordinary circumstances, I don't think.

25 Feb 2005 | lucidor said...

steal the whole window, to start with!

25 Feb 2005 | FUCKFACE said...

I WANT TEH MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!oneoneoneoneoneone1111

25 Feb 2005 | Mr. Doo said...

Let Star Jones sit on it the day after Thanksgiving.....

25 Feb 2005 | boo said...

i wnoder if he-man cuold baerk it. and isn't it anzimag how esaliy you can raed tihs msesgae. Ginueess- i bet you tugohht taht selpled giunses, as in the dghraut beer. so vrey wonrg

25 Feb 2005 | AAAAAAAAAAAAA said...

Text to boldText to italicize Text to link


24 Feb 2005 | midgets raping your face said...

It's my ambition to have the largest breasts in the animal sex industry.
24 Feb 2005 | Sandra said...

Okay - to clear things up:

Safety Glass: Glass that won't shatter into a million dangerously sharp pieces on impact. Safety glass is what's used in your car windshield and sliding glass doors. A film is placed over the glass and bonded to it to keep it somewhat together were it to be smashed.

Security Glass: Glass that is resistent to shattering or impact. This is what you have in the case of "hurricane-proof" windows and this ad. Yes, it will hold up to someone kicking it. Yes, it will likely even hold up against a more solid object coming at it with great force or speed (such as a tree branch in 100+ mph hurricane winds). I've seen hurricane glass tested and it's pretty impressive. It holds up to sledgehammers and even bullets (up to .36 caliber).

Does that mean it's completely indestructible? No of course not, and that's not what 3M is trying to say. They're saying that this glass is strong enough to withstand what most typical criminals would be able to do to it. Enough so that they feel pretty safe leaving a pile of cash behind it relatively unguarded. Yes, you could blow the thing up. Yes, you could go at it with a military caliber machine gun. Yes, you could even ram a vehicle at it at great speed. You'd probably break it. But frankly, there's not enough cash there (I'm assuming that even were it all real, it'd all be ones) to offset the cost of any of the "mr. wizard" or "pure brute strength" methods of beating it.

It's security glass people - the stuff behind it is secure... not theft-proof. You'd have a lot more reason to debunk it if they were actually marketing the glass as "indestructible glass"
24 Feb 2005 | bizaro said...

if you were a multi million dollar corperation would you want someone messing themselves up on one of your ads? probably not. the ad is for hype. it got my attention. and i am curious about tech specs. im quite posite that the glass is actually glass and not a polymer like lexan and that it s as stron or stronger than lexan. they only want people kicking it because they want to minimize the risk of someone punching it and breaking their fist and taking up legal action. at any rate not matter what the reasoning was for the rules regarding the ad it was just that. an ad. a device used to promote a new product. a tool to generate excitement. they did a good job.
24 Feb 2005 | adam said...

nobody ever heard of a truck with a winch? I would chain the bar and rip the whole damned thing off, then drag it home and get out the acetylene torch!
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24 Feb 2005 | nyfiken said...

kan man inte lsa in robert r00t dr istllet fr alla pengar..!?
24 Feb 2005 | hugo said...

jo, och lsa in nyckeln i en likadan lda en mete drifrn.... nyckeln frn den ldan smlter man ner
24 Feb 2005 | nyfiken said...

lter som en bra id!
24 Feb 2005 | BUTBUT said...

Did 3M make ME any better or richer ? No, so screw them. Yes, it's always about ME ME ME and you know it's about YOU YOU YOU as well.

Thank for your attention
24 Feb 2005 | daemon said...

I wonder what would happen if MacGyver would stop by with a knife, 20 fags and a chewing gum.
24 Feb 2005 | alex said...

how to crack it -

you can't destroy this chamber by exploding hydrogen gas, because hydrogen gas does not explode. your reaction for the equation is correct, but notice that you have more molecules on the product side than the reactant side -- explosions occur because there's more molecules of product than reactant.

Explosion is different from burning. Burning is uncontrolled oxidation of reactant, such as would happen to the hydrogen gas if you reacted it with oxygen (Consider the Hindenberg, that was five billion gallons of hydrogen gas burning, don't you think that if it would have exploded, then everybody filming it would have died, especially since it was not very high off the ground?) Explosions, on the other hand, are merely the near instantaneous jump in pressure due to housing an increased number of molecules in the same volume of space. The more molecules that get realeased in your reaction, the more explosive the compound.

- Alex
24 Feb 2005 | bob marleyink said...

the glass is resistant against explosives

http://products3.3m.com/catalog/ww/en001/security/-/node_GSNBV3V5KCbe/root_GST1T4S9TCgv/vroot_67FS85WMRKge/gvel_Q9XJL3F095gl/theme_ww_securitymarket_3_0/command_AbcPageHandler/output_html
24 Feb 2005 | Ted said...

The Hindenberg burned rather than exploded, I think, because there was no oxygen in with the hydrogen to start with, so it could only react as fast as the air could get in from outside. The explosion method described above specifies that the space not be filled entirely with hydrogen, which allows for a much faster reaction since the oxygen's already there. Admittedly, there's less product than reactant, but there's also a great increase in temperature. Within a fixed space, a temperacture increase causes an increase in air pressure, and that's what breaks the glass, I think. The danger comes from the broken glass that's then flying everywhere.
Also, regarding all this I'll take the thing home and break it in my workshop: That proves nothing. You're not gonna be able to take home someone's house and work on it. Nor are you gonna be firing machine guns to break into someone's house under ordinary circumstances, I don't think.
25 Feb 2005 | lucidor said...

steal the whole window, to start with!
25 Feb 2005 | FUCKFACE said...

I WANT TEH MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!oneoneoneoneoneone1111
25 Feb 2005 | Mr. Doo said...

Let Star Jones sit on it the day after Thanksgiving.....

25 Feb 2005 | jobstar said...

if this glass was in africa, i wud perform some voodoo shit to make the money disappear...

25 Feb 2005 | Mr. Jones said...

Thus STUNT by 3M implyies that the glass is BULLET PROOF. There is no such thing as BULLET PROOF!!!

On the market and with in the mikitary there are BULLET RESISTANT composites and materials, however nothing is bullet proof.

Next if the goal was to simulate a Break and Enter type of crime or a smash and grab situation, then again the stunt failed. Thieve use hammers, crow bars and alike to break a window. Yet people were only allowed to use thier hands and feet. This is not realistic and shame on 3M for miss leading people and the public.

One would think that 3M would be concerned about such things, but then again, they are industry GIANTS and they can afford to pull such stunts off.

I worry about the person who one day buys this glass thinking that its bullet proof and gets killed!!!

But that's what it takes some times to have people wake up.

Sadly, 3M won't care, they will have all kinds of disclaimers and laywerrs beat off the heat, at our expense. Its only a matter of time before the 3M monopoly will be exposed as ENRON and WORLD COM.

Mr. D. Jones Phd. Msc
[email protected]

25 Feb 2005 | Daddy Corp said...

As a structural engineer, it is clear that this stunt is publicty gone mad. "Lets not let the facts get in the way" 3M's approach.
Making false cliams as those that 3M's publicty company has done is a sad event. We have troops in Iraq and people in buildings here in the US, who need this securtity window films to work. Criminals and terrorists do not kick and punch... they use bombs and bullets. 3M is a sham.
There are three companies that make security glass protection laminates that can protect our citizens from bombs and bullets and thse companies have far superior films than 3M. Check out the video at www.USAce.com. This is real protection. Check out the security film at www.maddico.com or www.cp3film.com.
www.smashandgrab.com shows real video of how windows should be protected.
I hate it when big companies show prodcuts that are years behind the innovative prodcuts of smaller companies who do not have the publicty dollars to show thier products....booooo...3M...and Boo Hoo to those who use thier prodcuts thinking they are protected!
Daddy Corp. MBA, PEng

25 Feb 2005 | Hurr said...

Oh, well, it's a good thing you guys included your education degrees. That's always a fantastic way to extend one's e-penis.

Professor Dr. M. V. Long, MBA, BSc, MEng, Phd, MD

25 Feb 2005 | Gerhard said...

I was thinking "Nice add, but I wonder how it would hold up to a RPG?"

25 Feb 2005 | Nat said...

Give me ze money, Lebowzski!

25 Feb 2005 | Steve said...

So actually heres what bothers me... I get something like nitroglycerin, when it breaks down every molecule of nitroglycerine yileds something like 6 molecules of simple gas molecules (been a while and I am too lazy to look it up) ... gas laws and all.... huge pressure increase. Simple gas law stuff (never mind that its liquid to gas too... so its even more so).

However 2H2 + O2 -> 2H2O

So you have LESS products than reactants, in a ratio of 3:2.

So unless alot of energy is released (which I know it is), I would expect a drop in pressure, more likely to cause an implosion. That is unless the energy released is enough to cause the gs pressure to increase despite the decrease in molecule count.

In any case, when they have a security glass they are willing to put the CEO of 3M behind and allow people to shoot bursts at him from an AK47, wake me up then.

-Steve

25 Feb 2005 | Carlo said...

I would TOTALLY Take a magnifine glass and burn it all.

25 Feb 2005 | ron said...

I use a high powered ellectric saw and cut the frame off and took the whole case of money to my home. from there i used high tech lasers to cut the glass open and get a whopping 50 grand. now i am rich thanks to 3m's weak "security glass" i am very dissapointed

25 Feb 2005 | hi you morons said...

a cool idea turned into the dumbest thread i've ever read. you guys is morans!

25 Feb 2005 | Fu_ck_u said...

Morans? Speak for yourself you fucking shitbag.

25 Feb 2005 | Lance said...

Cant you see what the point of the glass is. its for home use, not to secure a fucking bank with. Thats why vaults were made. At the end of the day its a company showing their product. How many people are going to break into a home and go to the expense of use explosives to do it? Let alone diamond blades and the sort. Wake up.

26 Feb 2005 | mrputter said...

> explosions occur because there's more molecules of product than reactant.

Please, please. This is all just embarassing.

Chemistry 101, folks. The Ideal Gas Law: PV = nRT, remember?
P - pressure in atmospheres
V - volume in litres
n - number of moles
T - temperature in Kelvin
R - The universal gas constant = 0.082 atm*L*mol-1*K-1

So P = nRT/V
Or, ΔP = Δn * ΔT * R/V (since the latter two are constant)

Well, we already know (as has been discussed above; that much at least was correct) that Δn = 2/3. And let's assume 10cm*100cm*200cm = 200L for the volume inside the display. This may, yes, be a bit on the high side (by as much as a factor of 2 or 3, I'd accept, but as we'll see later, it won't make much difference). And as above, R = 0.082.

So then Δn = ΔT * (2*0.082)/(3*20) = ΔT * 0.00273

So what's the change in temperature? Well, it depends on how much H2 we pour into that sucker; a quick google search for the burning point of hydrogen tells us that "hydrogen in an oxygen atmosphere can reach burning temperatures up to 3000C" (from HyWeb.de).

Sounds good to me. So we start at a nice approximation of 27C (= 81F), and raise that to 3000C, for a net Δ of 2973C (or 2973K, since we only care about the change).

So our pressure change = 2973 * 0.00273 = 8.13 atmospheres. Pow! Sounds good enough to blow the hatches off that puppy to me. Who cares if it asplodes or not? (Indeed, obviously we'd rather it didn't, but whatever. Other than a little charring of the goods, the net effect will be the same.)

And as for that little matter of volume, above? Well, since we're dividing by the volume on the right-hand side, then a decrease in volume means that we're dividing by less, and the change in pressure will in fact be greater, leading to more confetti.

26 Feb 2005 | mrputter said...

Oops. And now I have egg all over my face, because I took the Δn as a ratio, not a strict differemce, then forgot to multiply by the number of moles of Hydrogen injected. But we know of course that 1mol of any gas @ room temperature and pressure is pretty close to 22.4L, so we can just say we pumped that much in (22.4L is a reasonable amount, just over 1/10 the interior display volume), and have that factor to 1, leaving the remainder of the equations intact. It really does make little difference in the long run.

26 Feb 2005 | Anonymous Troll said...

I'll give $100 to the first ignorant motherf#%$er that show up with a plasma cutter and gets away with the money without being caught.

$200 dollars to the fist person who gets the money, but is caught and is able to get off by claiming that 3M (and their advertizing compnay) is maintaining an attractive nusance.

26 Feb 2005 | mastad said...

Przyjedzcie z tym do Polski, my damy rade.


Bring it to Poland, we will take care of it;)

26 Feb 2005 | sputnik said...

yeah dude... bring me the money!!

26 Feb 2005 | ben said...

ripped from go.funpic.hu - exact url: http://www.funpic.hu/en.picview.php?id=22108&c=15&s=dd&p=1

26 Feb 2005 | Melcu said...

I think that glass is bullet proof!

26 Feb 2005 | deniv said...

It is easier to invite Russian

26 Feb 2005 | Killer said...

-------------------- Well -------------------

------------------- Solution ----------------


easy.. just drive ur car in and if glass dont break.. take the whole

shit with u (glass and all..)

u deserved it..

26 Feb 2005 | trojan101 said...

hahahahahaha if they want to check if theyre product is really good than they should pyt it in polan exacly in a middle of warsaw buahahahahahahaha i guarrantired that it wount stay there for more than a three days :P:P:P buahahahahahahahahaha ciao everybody

27 Feb 2005 | Justin said...

If I'm not mistaken, it's a simply a film that is applied to glass to make it strong -- not bulletproof glass.

Unless the former is actually what reinforced glass is.

27 Feb 2005 | Boredwithhyperliterals said...

The point was to show the strength of the glass and resistance to smash and vandalism. Not the strength of the frame, pole, ground or to demonstrate a new way to store money in the outdoors.

How to show that in a brief instant? Well any intelligent person knows bus shelters get brutally abused. Encasing the money in shelter was as good as saying 'this glass will stand up to the worst abuse'

I'd be curious what the fire department type impact points would do to it.

27 Feb 2005 | Vinvin said...

Excellent !

27 Feb 2005 | Chris said...

Hey, their putting their money where their mouth is.

27 Feb 2005 | Bob Dogg said...

3M Scotchshield Safety and Security Film

http://www.3m.com/intl/ca/english/about_us/whats_new_stories/news057.html

28 Feb 2005 | Mark said...

two words: Plasma Cutter

28 Feb 2005 | allttan said...

Biz ne yapar eder alırız.

01 Mar 2005 | Joshy C said...

I'm Tellin you a little bit of thermite goes a long way.

01 Mar 2005 | penis said...

penis

01 Mar 2005 | penis said...

penis

01 Mar 2005 | Adam Michela said...

How many forum members does it takes to change a light bulb?

1 to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been changed
14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently
7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs
1 to move it to the Lighting section
2 to argue then move it to the Electricals section
7 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs
5 to flame the spell checkers
3 to correct spelling/grammar flames
6 to argue over whether it's "lightbulb" or "light bulb" ... another 6 to condemn those 6 as stupid
2 industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term is "lamp"
15 know-it-alls who claim they were in the industry, and that "light bulb" is perfectly correct
19 to post that this forum is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a lightbulb forum
11 to defend the posting to this forum saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts are relevant to this forum
36 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this technique and what brands are faulty
7 to post URL's where one can see examples of different light bulbs
4 to post that the URL's were posted incorrectly and then post the corrected URL's
3 to post about links they found from the URL's that are relevant to this group which makes light bulbs relevant to this group
13 to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including all headers and signatures, and add "Me too"
5 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy
4 to say "didn't we go through this already a short time ago?"
13 to say "do a Google search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs"
1 forum lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start it all over again.

;)

02 Mar 2005 | jasiek said...

haha put that up for one hour in my city (warsaw,poland) and see if it lasts... NEVER!

02 Mar 2005 | Mike said...

23 Feb 2005 | I didnt say that i said...
bruce lee could break that glass

No, he couldn't. He's dead.

02 Mar 2005 | Mike said...

23 Feb 2005 | I didnt say that i said...
bruce lee could break that glass

No, he couldn't. He's dead.

02 Mar 2005 | Tyni said...

What...not even a bulldozer..hmmm

03 Mar 2005 | Burak said...

There should be a way to open it.
How will 3M take their money out after the ad. campaign over?

03 Mar 2005 | Ontoriko said...

Sik kafalı japon askeri bile bu kadar para icin ugrasmaz!!

03 Mar 2005 | BoBBB said...

"Next time I see a 3M product in a store, I'll undoubtfully think of this campaign, and my good feelings towards 3M in general will make me pick their product."

What a consumer whore.

04 Mar 2005 | jimmy said...

F*cking Bonza Dude

04 Mar 2005 | gpr said...

What's so great, they have such faith that they fake the money and have a security guard? The 'amazing concept' that the media whores gush about only works when supported by dishonesty. Says a lot really.

04 Mar 2005 | mungo said...

Rethink Advertising

04 Mar 2005 | joongil said...

독도는 우리땅이다.
일본넘들아 건들지마라..
그러다 엉아한테 맞는다...

05 Mar 2005 | hilarleo said...

WTF is Mario ass-raping here?

>24 Feb 2005 | LUEshi said...

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05 Mar 2005 | jimjiber said...

great stunt

more impressive is that this thread proves that there really are some morons who spend all day trawling the net just to put swear words in a thread

it's about time my mom got a day job...

05 Mar 2005 | jimmy said...

Jimmy
I have a job. Cleaning the house and peeling your bananas! time to move out of the house Jimmmy boy. :)

05 Mar 2005 | Tony LeMesma said...

All bow at my great magical power

05 Mar 2005 | Domokun said...

Erm...
Anyone thought of an implosion...saw some film where they blew safe underwater, with high water pressure aiding.

though would u have enough radiators to dry money? only joking

just thinking if torpedos can't create void of water under battleships and snap them in two, how would the glass stand up to?

05 Mar 2005 | alan said...

well hasnt reading this been an interesting waste of time.
that thing that "boo" said was funny, right before that idiot cut&pasted everything though.
furthermore it has given me a headache, goodnight

06 Mar 2005 | Spike said...

If ya hit the very corner with a metalwork file, it shatters then ;o)

07 Mar 2005 | Jake said...

Please tell me nobody actually read all of that!

07 Mar 2005 | C Farber said...

ttt

08 Mar 2005 | informant said...

You guys do know there wasn't any real money in there? Only like 500$ on top were real, the rest of it is fake.

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