Percy Shaw

Percy Shaw was one of many born in 1890 in the Lee Mount area of Halifax. Coming from a rather large family of 14 children, Shaw spent much of his time working with his brothers to support the family selling their garden vegetables in Boothtown. Eventually the family's financial situation progressed to him having to leave school at the age of 13 to work. For the next few years Shaw held several random jobs which gave him the experience to open a blacksmith's forge with this father Jimmy. His new shop allowed him the flexibility needed to begin a career as an inventor. Shaw began his understanding of inventions by putting rubber backing on carpets and rugs. He is even acknowledged for a horribly failed attempt to create a petrol pump. It wasn't until the 1930s when Shaw's career started to grow.

When driving down the road one day in 1933, Shaw suffered a car crash near Bradford, England. Frustrated that his accident was caused by the inability to view the sharp drop on the side of the road due to the fact that the tram tracks that are typically used for direction were not visible, Shaw became determined to create a new invention to warn drivers of the dangers on the road. While sitting on the side on the road in though, Shaw saw the reflection of his car's headlights in the eyes of a cat, which sparked his new ideas.

Unfortunately the story of the cat eyes cannot be assured to be true, since many stories were passed around to tell about Shaw's inspiration. Nevertheless, the inspiration came to create a reflective road marker to warn travelers of the road. This invention took several years to create due to the fact that there wasn't many materials available that would be bright enough to be seen during the night, severe weather, and even the bright lights of other vehicles. In 1934 Shaw patented a design of four glass beads which faced in opposition directions in a rubber cast. This rubber was molded onto a cast iron base which was then buried into the road with asphalt. His patent even included a maintenance free, or lazy free, way to clean itself by collecting water to clean the beads once the dome was pushed into the group when cars would drive over it. With the hit of his patent, Shat started the Reflecting Roadstuds Ltd company one year later in Boothtown. He received many skeptical comments about the device, and so he installed 50 "Catseyes" on a road known famous for its accidents. Miraculously, the frequency of accidents quickly fell which created fame for his invention.

Later in 1937 the Department for Transport hired Percy Shaw to mass produce the Catseyes for the roads in England. It wasn't until WWII, however, that his inventions were actually used during the blackouts. This caused a peak in production and caused the company to expand to a 130 staff, 20 acre facility. His Catseye Reflector quickly spread across the world which created a life of luxury for him and his family. However, Shaw never married and spent the remainder of his life taking care of his siblings. He eventually died on September 1st 1976 in Boothtown where he lived since he was 2 years old.



Mr. Percy Shaw: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml?xml=/portal/2007/11/30/ftcatseye130.xml

The location of his "inspiration": http://www.designmuseum.org/media/item/5246/-1/150_2.jpg

The actual catseye: http://www.designmuseum.org/media/item/5249/-1/150_5.jpg

Picture of the catseye at night: http://www.designmuseum.org/media/item/5251/-1/150_7.jpg

His 20 acre facility is Boothtown: http://www.designmuseum.org/media/item/5252/-1/150_8.jpg