Cats Eyes.

Percy Shaw. OBE. 1890 - 1976

He patented the reflective road stud or “ cats eyes “ in 1934 and set up a company to manufacture his invention in 1935.

Born in Halifax, and moved as a boy to Boothtown, where he lived for the rest of his life.
Started work at 13 as a labourer in a cloth mill.
After a variety of different jobs, he started his own business as a road contractor, repairing roads.

There are several stories about how he came up with the idea. However, in an interview with Alan Whicker, he said he had been inspired, on a foggy night, to think of a way of moving the reflective studs on a road sign to the road surface.
He based his invention on the 1927 reflecting lens patent of Richard Hollins Murray.
A later patent added a rainwater reservoir to the rubber shoe, which could be used to wash the glass “ eyes “ when a car drove over the stud.

He became a bit of an eccentric in later life.
Howerver his invention must have saved countless lives over the years.
I know how important they are when driving along unlit country roads.
There aren’t any round here now as we have streetlights but remembered this cat deterrent in a garden just up the road, and so thought it would be an appropriate substitute.

In 2005 he was listed as one of the 50 greatest Yorkshire people, and rightly so.