Percy Shaw (15 April 1890 – 1 September 1976) was a prolific English inventor and businessman who revolutionized road safety across the globe by inventing the “cat’s eye,” a retroreflective road stud.
Early Life and Career Beginnings
Born in Boothtown, Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, Shaw left school at age 13 to work in a wire mill and later became a road labourer. By his late teens, he had set up on his own as a road-repair contractor, patching and resurfacing local streets. This hands-on experience with dangerous, unlit rural roads during the frequent fog and darkness of northern England deeply informed his later inventions.
Invention of the Cat’s Eye
The inspiration for the cat’s eye struck Shaw in 1933 while he was driving along a notoriously dangerous stretch of road in Queensbury, Halifax, featuring a steep drop-off. He later recounted that the headlights of his car were reflected back to him by the shining eyes of a cat sitting on a fence, which saved him from driving off the road.
Recognizing the potential of retroreflection for drivers navigating unlit and foggy routes, Shaw set out to create a durable, road-embedded reflector. He patented his design in 1934 (British Patent No. 436,290) and founded Reflex Roadstuds Ltd in 1935 to manufacture them.
The device consisted of:
- A rubber dome housing two pairs of glass bead reflectors facing opposite directions.
- A built-in wiper mechanism (a rubber wiper pad) that cleared mud and debris from the lenses every time a vehicle’s tire rolled over the stud.
- A cast-iron housing robust enough to withstand the weight of heavy commercial traffic while sitting flush with the road surface.
Impact and Legacy
Although initially slow to catch on, Shaw’s invention proved vital during World War II, when the British government instituted wartime blackouts, extinguishing streetlights and vehicle headlights. The cat’s eyes provided essential guidance for military and civilian convoys, leading to widespread adoption across the United Kingdom’s highway network.
Shaw remained intensely dedicated to his work, living simply in the same house near his factory in Halifax for the rest of his life. For his contributions to road safety, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1965. Today, millions of cat’s eyes continue to guide motorists safely on roads worldwide, cementing Percy Shaw’s enduring legacy in transportation infrastructure.