Talk:Percy Shaw
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The cat's eye road reflector is a simple device that has saved countless lives. These inexpensive glass and rubber reflectors are set on the roadway at regular intervals, and help motorists see where the road is at night. Each of the cat's eyes reflects oncoming light, acting like lights set into the road. This device was invented in 1933 by Percy Shaw, from Yorkshire, England. He invented it after he had been driving on a dark, winding road on a foggy night; he was saved from going off the side of the hill by a cat, whose eyes reflected his car's lights. Shaw's invention mimicked the reflectivity of a cat's eyes. Because of his invention, Shaw was awarded the Order of the British Empire ("OBE") by Queen Elizabeth of England in 1965.
I remember seeing a BBC TV feature back in the 1960s (the "Tonight" program, I think) which claimed that while Percy Shaw invented the self-cleaning mechanism for cat's eyes, he did not invent the reflecting cat's eye itself, this being an earlier relatively unsuccessful invention. 82.71.74.190 13:32, 16 May 2006 (UTC)
