Glory hole

Glory hole is a colloquial term for any small room or cupboard, usually containing odds and ends. In glassblowing, a glory hole is an opening in a furnace, or a stand alone furnace, which is used to reheat the molten glass as it is formed.

The phrase originated in mining. In the western states during the Gold Rush days, independent miners who did not have the finances to dig a conventional mine shaft would dig a shaft staight down to try to find a gold seam. These perpendicular shafts became known as "glory holes".

In modern mining, a glory hole is an open-cut or pit mine used to reach and mine out an ore deposit with extraction from the bottom level via an adit or underground markings. In glory-hole mining a steep-sided, funnel-shaped surface excavation is connected to tunnels below it. Rocks blasted off the sides of the excavation fall into the tunnels, from which they are then removed.

Many similar holes or excavations in construction sites may also be referred to as glory holes.

Sexual usage

A glory hole is also a hole in the wall, often between two cubicles, in a public lavatory, video booths , which can be used to look through to see the person in the next cubicle (see voyeurism) or to reach through to participate in sexual activity with the person next door.

Men may put their penises through the hole to engage in oral, anal or vaginal intercourse while maintaining a certain degree of anonymity. This usually happens in established sex clubs, pornography arcades, XXX theatres and adult bookstores. Glory holes in normal public lavatories are mainly used as peep holes.

The expression originated from gay slang, but in recent years the term and practice have been adopted by heterosexual pornography and in reality by straight men (see also MSM). Although women participate in this practice less often, this does happen.

Other instances of the word's use

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

External links

• Gloryholes... ? - an extensive background information on glory holes (commerical site that purportedly sells information on glory holes)
• Article on glory holes from the Rotten.com library