What had Percy Shaw been using to find his way at night before he invented the cat's eye?
Show the answer
Polished tram rails
When the tram lines at Ambler Thorn, near Halifax, were removed, Shaw realised he had been steering by the polished steel rails at night. He patented his cat's eye in 1934.
The reflecting lens was not his idea: it had been invented six years earlier for advertising signs.
Percy Shaw came from Boothtown in Halifax, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. When the tram lines in the nearby suburb of Ambler Thorn were taken up, he realised that the polished steel rails had been guiding him on the road at night. The name of his invention came from the eyeshine reflecting from the eyes of a cat. He patented the cat's eye in 1934 and, on 15 March 1935, founded Reflecting Roadstuds Limited in Halifax to make them; Catseye is the company's trademark. The retroreflecting lens itself had been invented six years earlier by Richard Hollins Murray, an accountant from Herefordshire, for use in advertising signs. A neat feature of the road stud is a fixed rubber wiper that cleans the reflectors as they sink below the road surface, helped by water that collects in the base after rain. The blackouts of the Second World War, with shuttered car headlights, showed the value of Shaw's invention and helped popularise its mass use in the UK. In 2006 cat's eyes were voted one of Britain's top 10 design icons.
Five questions. Two minutes.
Your turn.