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Percy Shaw

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Inventor

The Resume

    (April 15, 1890-September 1, 1976)
    Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom
    Invented cat's eye road reflectors (1934)
    Founded Reflecting Roadstuds, Ltd. (1935)
    Named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (1965)

Why he might be annoying:

    He told several different stories about what inspired the creation of cat's eyes. (Inevitably, one involved his headlights reflecting off the eyes of a cat, keeping him from going onto the shoulder of a badly lit road.)
    To test his reflector designs, he dug up a local road (without permission), installed various cat's eyes, and drove along to see how well each one worked.
    He removed the carpets, curtains, and most of the furniture from his home.
    He owned four television sets that were placed next to each other, each tuned to a different station. (His explanation was that when he had friends over, they could all watch their favorite shows without any arguments.)

Why he might not be annoying:

    He designed cat's eyes to be self-cleaning when they were run over by a car.
    He also designed them so the metal kerbs protecting the central rubber dome provided tactile and audible warnings if a driver drifted out of their lane.
    In a series of tests by the Ministry of Transportation, his reflector design was the only one found to be satisfactory (1937).
    Sales of cat's eyes took off during the World War II blackouts.
    In a survey by the BBC and the Design Museum (2006), cat's eyes were chosen as one of the top ten icons of British design. (Other top ten finishers included the Concorde and the mini-Cooper.)

Credit: C. Fishel


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Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 21 Votes: 52.38% Annoying