The catseye was invented by British inventor Percy Shaw in 1934. The idea occured to him whilst driving along a dark road one night, he saw a row of posts with reflectors on them and decided they would be more useful at road level.
The catseye consists of a carefully engineered prism with a reflective constituent. It also harbors a layer of aluminium which functions as a mirror. All of these sections are mounted within a rubber casing which not only obviously protects the eyes, but the passing vehicles tyres as well. The most innovative section of the catseye - the self-wiper, as well as protecting the stud, has the ability to clean itself. The inside wall, where the eyes are entrenched has a small cut in it so that when the eyes are pushed downwards, the dirt and rain are automatically washed away. The fragile reflectors found within catseyes never come into contact with vehicles tyres as they are too far rooted into the rubber for them to get damaged. The complete device fastens into an iron base which has additional ramps to safeguard the pad. It is then sunk into the road and ready for use.
Green, amber, red and yellow tinted catseyes can also be obtained, these are more often used on highways to signify the difference between lanes, slip roads and the hard shoulder. Different types of cast iron bases are used for different road conditions. For example, long bases are used where traffic flow is heavy and they can cope with snow ploughs and track laying vehicles, curved bases are used on sharp corners or bends to combat sideways pressure.
