Nostalgia Knowledge - Past Times Project

Home <> Nostalgia Knowledge <> View Requests <> Who Invented Cats Eyes?

Responses
Catseye 14/03/2006 17:02:29 By keith9351	Catseye Designer: Percy Shaw One dark night when the road mender Percy Shaw was driving home in the Yorkshire town of Halifax, he saw the light of his car headlamps reflected in the eyes of a cat sitting beside the road. Shaw realised that by replicating this effect he could produce a practical way of helping drivers to navigate poorly lit roads at night, even in the worst weather conditions. Shaw designed a small device to be inserted into the road as a marker. It consisted of a pair of shiny glass and metal beads embedded in a flexible rubber dome which would reflect the lights of oncoming traffic like cat's eyes. When vehicles drove over the dome it contracted and the beads dropped safely beneath the road surface. Shaw even devised a way for his Cat's Eyes to clean themselves. Whenever the dome was depressed a rubber wiper brushed rainwater across the beads to clear any dust or grime. Cat's Eyes have since guided drivers along roads all over the world and the ingenious Percy Shaw enjoyed a prosperous life thanks to a shrewd decision to patent his invention in 1934.
Percy 10/12/2007 21:33:27 By sturdle	seems he had no carpets but a TV in every room in his house..... odd us Yorkshire folk....
percy 13/07/2008 12:02:40 By whacker	Yes I remember seeing a documentry about him on TV some years ago...it was very interesting. As you said sturdle..he had no carpets but always had hie friends around him having a bevvy...lol

To leave a response please login or join for free, up in the top left corner.