oo

Percy Shaw was an English Inventor and a businessman.  He patented his most famous invention, the reflective road stud or ‘cat’s eye’ for lighting the way along roads in the dark,  and set up a company to manufacture his invention in 1935.  There are several stories about how he came up with the idea.

oo

The Old Dolphin Public House

The most famous story involves him driving down the difficult road from the

Old Dolphin Public House to his home in Halifax, when a cat on a fence

along the edge of the road looked at the car, reflecting his headlights back

to him, enabling him to take corrective action to remain on the road.

oo

Foggy Night

In an interview with Alan Whicker he told a different story of being

inspired on a foggy night to think of a way of moving the reflective

studs on a road sign to the surface of the road.

oo

Tram Tracks

Local schoolchildren visiting the factory in the late 1970s were told the idea came from Shaw seeing light reflected from his car headlamps by tram tracks on the road on a foggy night. By following the advancing reflection on the tram tracks, which had been made shiny by the trams, it was possible for him to maintain his correct position on the road. When the tram lines were removed in the nearby suburb of Ambler Thorn, he realised that he had been using the polished strips of steel to navigate at night.

 

Percy Shaw OBE (1890 - 1976)

Animation: Alan Raine