Cats eyes
You can get the full story of Percy Shaw (1935) if you google him, or indeed 'cat's eyes'. The brilliant bit was the fact that the rubber top deformed when run over, and any rainwater in the cavity was squeezed out past the glass beads, thus making them self-cleaning. When I was kid, we used to try to get unwary friends to stamp on the rubber pad after rain just to see the water shoot up their legs - 10 point bonus for girls...
These modern replacements are no fun...