Dear jimen,
The device known as "Cat's Eyes" was invented by the Englishman Percy
Shaw (1890-1976) from Yorkshire. 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. He applied for a British patent on his invention on 31
May 1935, and the patent was published on 30 November 1936. You can
read the full patent GB457536 "Improvements relating to blocks for
road surface marking" here, provided by the online database of the
European Patent Office:
http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=GB457536&F=0
Shaw formed his own company, Reflecting Roadstuds Ltd., to manufacture
his device. The wartime blackout boosted production and the firm
developed into a 20 acre site at Boothtown, employing as many as 130
workers making more than a million roadstuds a year, exported all over
the world. Shaw indeed became a wealthy man, though not as fabulously
rich as often claimed.
For his invention, Shaw was awarded the Order of the British Empire
("OBE") by Queen Elizabeth of England in 1965. He died on 1 September
1976.
For more information, please read this Halifax Today article on Percy
Shaw and his invention:
http://www.halifaxtoday.co.uk/mk4custompages/CustomPage.aspx?PageID=39556
I hope this answers your question!
Regards,
Scriptor
Sources:
Jenkins: The Cat and the Middle (of the Road)
http://www.jenkins-ip.com/mym/spring2000/t_news01.htm
Design & Technology: Percy Shaw
http://www.design-technology.info/inventors/page14.htm
Young Engineers: Cats Eyes and Percy Shaw
http://www.youngeng.org/amaz_eng.html
Mensch & Büro: Ein Name wird zum Programm
http://www.menschundbuero.de/officework/mub/menschen/214136.html
Infoplease: Percy Shaw
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0772558.html
Enchanted Learning: Inventors and Inventions, C
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/inventors/indexc.shtml |
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