World’s biggest missed chance?

Before the days of Google, Wikipedia and the whole world wide web you could have long (pub) discussions about who invented what, when and why. I recall the laughter about the toilet being addressed to a certain mister Crapper and a great number of (now) everyday inventions that were supposedly conceived by the Scots. If you had a Scotsman among your friends, he was the one to tell you all about it. Oh – and then there was the Cat’s Eye. An invention so simple but so widespread throughout the UK and so successful everywhere else in the world that it was the envy of many hoping to make an easy fortune one day.

Cat’s Eye

So, with every fact being a mere mouse click away from us now, we thought it fun to check who it was, who actually came up with the Cat’s Eye after we stumbled upon the beautiful shot seen here. According to Wikipedia (there’s your single mouse click), the thing was invented by mister Percy Shaw of Boothtown, Halifax, West Yorkshire, who invented it as the result of an encounter with a cat one particular dark and foggy night when he made his way home. He patented his clever find in 1934 and the rest is history. Read more about the Yorkshire man and Rolls-Royce enthusiast here.

Over to the picture shown here, which originally comes with the following caption: “14th March 1935: Small red and white reflectors fixed into the kerb along the Great West Road at Cranford for about 100 yards to guide motorists on dark or foggy nights.” Now, we are not totally sure whether this man is our Percy Shaw, but we are quite sure he is not. Not only does he look very differently; Shaw’s Cat’s Eyes are also very different in shape and size and – as far as we know – are not placed in the kerbs. So, could this be the man who missed a huge opportunity for not patenting what is now called ‘The most brilliant invention ever produced in the interests of road safety’?

We would love to hear from you.

Words by Jeroen Booij. Picture Arthur Tanner/Fox Photos.

Published:

Tuesday May 12th, 2020

Grimmo

13 May 2020, 20:19

This looks like the invention of Mr. Robert Ball, a road contractor of Brook-street, Southport, which was reported in June 1933. His concrete kerb-stones were three feet long and set with red reflectors at intervals of about a foot. First tested on the main road from Southport to Ormskirk and then in 1934 installed on the Preston-Lytham road; hence, reflector kerbs were in wide use by 1935 but somehow, if that’s Ball in the photo, I doubt he made as much money as Percy Shaw.

As to Shaw, a 1968 article said that whilst he had indeed on his way home on foggy nights along Queensbury Rd from Bradford to Halifax followed the reflecting tramlines, he later discovered he could no longer do so because the metals had been taken up, replaced by trolley-buses. However, he said one night he was fortunate to see the reflection of the eyes of a cat sitting on the fence at the side of the last, sharp bend on that road and it was from those combined experiences that his idea grew. Wonder when the Queensbury tramlines were taken up?

Seems the eccentric Shaw, who with respect to Tim Cork’s comment never married, may even have enhanced his story later with the cat and he told others that existing reflective studs on road signs had given him the idea. His money-maker was to incorporate improved 1927-patented reflectors into those cast metal and rubber road mounts.

Larry A. Lewis

13 May 2020, 17:04

Scottish people are just like vegans. How do you know that someone is Scottish or a Vegan? Don't worry, they will tell you.

Mike Clark

12 May 2020, 10:58

I agree with Tim - local wisdom in Halifax where I once lived was that tram lines were the inspiration.

The crap word does really derive from the toilet manufacturer Thomas Crapper. A friend living in a posh flat in Kensington had a cast iron high level flush toilet with Crapper's No 1 cast into the casing.

Mike

David Barker

12 May 2020, 10:41

Ken Dodd suggested that had the cat been facing the other way, then Percy Shaw might have invented the pencil sharpener.

Tim Cork

12 May 2020, 08:58

It was not cats' eyes, it was the refelection of his headlights in the steel tram tracks that gave him the idea. He was on his way home from a pub called Nont Sarahs, outside Huddersfield. At least, that's the story as told to me by his grand-daughter.....

World’s biggest missed chance?

Cat’s Eye

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