In high security areas, fill the gap in double-paned window with a transparent, yet concentrated, skunk-smell chemical. Thief breaks window and is repulsed by stink. Maybe use pepper spray stuff, too.
Now, how to milk the skunks of their stink?.....hmmm.
(As an aside, I've gradually built up a tolerance and yes, even a liking for skunk spray)
**Amendment: I suggest the inner pane be polycarbonate while the outer pane be glass, so it is highly likely that all the stink stays outside.-- lumpy, Jan 17 2003 Marine life double glazing http://www.halfbake..._20double_20glazingHippo's idea. [8th of 7, Oct 04 2004] <holding nose> And the innocent homeowner then has to live in a stinky house with a broken window until the smell subsides? </holding nose>-- Cedar Park, Jan 17 2003 This is a neat, simple and effective idea. The smell is very bad, but in no way injurious. It would be unfortunate if the window was broken accidentally, but that's a realtively rare event, shirley ?
The smell would also alert the occupants of the house, or their neighbours, if an attempt were made to cut the glass surreptitiously.
Croissant.-- 8th of 7, Jan 17 2003 Fishbone smell?
Croissant.-- egbert, Jan 17 2003 Hm. How about sarin-filled-windows or people-with-guns-filled windows or angry-leopard-filled-windows? The solution to all of these seems to be not to come in through the broken window.-- waugsqueke, Jan 17 2003 [waugs] Aha, but by requiring a solution to be found you have increased your security, I don't think [lumpy]'s claim is that this is a foolproof solution to all your theft/home invasion issues. Good to see you're back by the way.-- Zircon, Jan 17 2003 Well, only if a significant number of housebreaks occur through broken windows. Do they? I don't know. If they don't, you've not increased security at all.
(And I never went anywhere, btw.)
[egb- they're welcome to them. In fact, you can have this one.]-- waugsqueke, Jan 17 2003 Then someone broke in and stole all your anno's. The skunk!-- egbert, Jan 17 2003 [waugs] The creation date on your account says differently, but spying some greater designs, which I am not privy to, consider the issue no longer persued.-- Zircon, Jan 17 2003 // only if a significant number of housebreaks occur through broken windows //
Common methods of entering a property include breaking or removing the glazing in a glazed door to allow access to the lock mechanism, or similarly attacking a window to gain access to the catch(es).-- 8th of 7, Jan 17 2003 (Zircon, the account was recreated, yes, but I did not go anywhere.)-- waugsqueke, Jan 17 2003 The greater design was (maybe) to make it look as if everyone who's disagreed with him over the last year is an idiot arguing with him or herself.-- egbert, Jan 17 2003 Piranha-tank windows.
We should invent some sort of term to describe the swiss cheese that results from a waugsqueke phoenix ritual. Waugs hauntings?
later...
waugs, you don't happen to be typing from inside a box, do you? Is a cat in there?-- RayfordSteele, Jan 17 2003 We did fishtank windows before, I think.
[later] yes. Link.-- 8th of 7, Jan 17 2003 Why not just add a pepper-spray canister to the inside of the windowpanes? That way, if the window is broken, the burglar is sprayed.-- Evil_Baron_Moustachio, Jan 17 2003 8th, exactly, hence my anno.-- RayfordSteele, Jan 17 2003 How often do burglars find entrance through windows?-- ImBack, Jan 17 2003 What's the point of adding to a thread if you haven't read the annotations?-- snarfyguy, Jan 17 2003 "repulsed by stink"... I'm sure there's a death-metal band with that name...-- DRstrathmore, Jan 17 2003 I was wondering who committed suicide (and resurrection, apparently).-- galukalock, May 05 2003 Well, sounds like a decent idea. After all, it's just a gas right now. We add bad smelling gas to our gas lines so we know when there's a leak... why not? After all, if anybody knows you have them, they'd probably try to find a different way in, which might take more time.
Filling the window with sarin, pepper spray, or people with guns might lead to some rather troublesome results if the inner pane was broken, and could lead to serious lawsuits.
There's also the glue-filled window. I suppose it might be possible to fill the window with some compound that becomes a dark dye in the presence of air... or human oils.
In the ultimate scheme, you would fill the windows up with a clear substance that turned into a bad-smelling, brightly colored glue when it came in contact with human flesh.
The main problem with these ideas is that to get maximum efficiency out of the product, you would want to have as much of it as possible inside the window to begin with. There are two options: either put the contents in under extreme pressure (Which would reduce the insulation qualities of the double-paned glass) Or have a reservoir of more of the substance above the window (Which would probably pressurize the contents in the window anyway)
Best wishes. Always glad to see new ideas for increasing home security, even a little bit.-- ye_river_xiv, Jun 17 2006 random, halfbakery