How did percy shaw die

Resource created by Calderdale Museums: Bankfield Museum

This resource tells the story of one man's invention that has saved countless lives around the world. All inspired by a cat! 

Curriculum Links:

• KS1 History: Significant historical events, people and places in their own locality.
• KS1 Science: Materials.
• KS2 Science: Light – notice that light is reflected from surfaces.
• KS2 English: Writing diaries and autobiographies.

Activity Ideas

• Write an autobiography or biography of Percy Shaw. For example you could turn his life story into a comic strip or poem
• Design an experiment to investigate what materials reflect.
  • What materials will you need?
  • How will you ensure it is a fair test?
  • What will your variables be?
• Our roads are a lot busier than they were in Percy’s time. Create an invention of your own to make our roads safer for people. This could be something to help:
  • Pedestrians
  • Cyclists
  • Skateboarders or Scooter riders
  • The elderly
  • Wheelchair users
  • Blind or deaf people

Spotlight - Cats Eyes

Edwards, Florence

Black hardback cloth cover. Condition: VG : in very good condition. First Edition. 220mm x 180mm (9" x 7"). 64pp. With photographic illustrations and diagrams throughout. With dust jacket. The story of Percy Shaw, the man who invented the use of the catseye as an aid to in night-time driving. The book describes the development of this idea and its role in the modern manufatcuring process. Seller Inventory # j0811

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English inventor of the reflective road stud (1890–1976)

Percy Shaw, OBE (15 April 1890 – 1 September 1976) was an English inventor and businessman. He patented the reflective road stud or "cat's eye" in 1934, and set up a company to manufacture his invention in 1935.

Biography

Percy Shaw was born in Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the fourth child and second son of James Shaw, a dyehouse labourer who worked at a local mill, and his second wife Esther Hannah Morrell. Shaw's father also had seven children by his first wife, Jane Brearley, who died in 1883. In 1892, his parents moved their large family to Boothtown in Halifax, where Shaw lived for the rest of his life.

Shaw was educated at Boothtown Board School, and started work as a labourer in a cloth mill at the age of 13. He became apprenticed to a wire drawer, but the low wages on offer were not attractive and he soon took a series of unskilled jobs in local engineering works. He was thus well placed to join his father in a new business repairing small machine tools used in munitions pr