He also proposed the cyclol reaction in the mid-1930s,[2] and made many other contributions to solid-state physics, geophysics, and the theory of liquid crystals.

[citation needed] Prior to World War II, he worked as a physicist in Berlin and as a colloid chemist in Cambridge.

During World War II he joined the Chemical Defence Experimental Station at Porton Down, Wiltshire, but in 1940 was transferred to the Air Ministry's Assistant Directorate of Intelligence (Science) and spent the rest of the war with the Air Ministry.

His work with Keith Burton and Nicolás Cabrera was to demonstrate the role dislocations played in the growth of crystals.

[9] He was also a member of the Materials Science Club Awards Sub-Committee which selected the Griffith medallist for 1972 (L. R. G. Treloar).