Where inspiration struck
Queensbury Road (the A647), West Yorkshire
+53° 45' 5.72",-1° 52' 5.71"
One evening in 1933, Percy Shaw was driving home to Halifax from the Old Dolphin pub in Queensbury, West Yorkshire. At around 300m above sea level, the A647 was foggy and damp. Previously, Shaw had relied on the reflections of his car's headlights on the metal tramlines to guide him, but the trams had recently been discontinued and the lines dug up. That evening, his headlights were reflected in the eyes of a cat, giving him the idea for his 1935 invention. The Catseye design is still in use: four mirror-coated reflective lenses embedded in a rubber cap, which sits inside a metal base. If the Catseyes are run over, a wiper cleans them as they sink into the often water-filled base.
Credit: Christoffer Rudquist