![]() ![]() ![]() Shaw made his Cat's Eyes really tough, even if vehicles drove over them - the rubber was shrunk into the road and the glass beads dropped safely beneath the road surface and remained undamaged. To keep the device in place it was buried and fixed in position with asphalt. This was all integrated in an elasticated rubber moulding, which was firmly attached to a cast iron base. To give off the best possible reflections Shaw decided that it was best to position the glass beads in pairs and face them in opposite directions. Shaw made the road safety device from four glass beads, a rubber moulding and a cast iron base. It was not until 1937 however, that Percy Shaw won the contract from the government to mass-produce the Cat's Eyes. It took him so long because not only did he make it bright enough to illuminate the road at night, he also made it tough enough to withstand all weathers and vehicles driving over the top of it. Shaw registered the patent for the Cat's Eye in 1934 but it took several years to design what is known as the Cat's Eye. Shaw realised that as the car was becoming more popular and more motorists would want to drive at night - they would need a guide as headlights would not be enough to keep them safe. This was when it clicked that it would be a brilliant idea to replicate the reflection of Cat's Eyes to guide drivers along dark and dangerous roads. That is until he had the fortune of spotting his headlights reflecting back from the eyes of a stray cat that was sat by the road. But on this night in 1933 the fog was so bad that there was no reflection off the tracks and he could not make out where the road turned into the hillside. Shaw claimed that at night he drove by using the reflection that his car headlights gave off in the tram tracks. It is said that Shaw was driving home at night in the fog in 1933 when he reached a dangerous part of the road. The story behind the invention is quite a famous tale. The device was invented by Percy Shaw, who worked as a road-mender. The Cat's Eye is a safety device and is used on 99 per cent of roads in the UK. ![]()
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