Professor Samuel Devons

I was at Trinity College, Cambridge, in the late 1940s, doing research in solid-state physics, and encountered Sam Devons [obituary by Professor Frank Sciulli, 3 January] over the bridge table, writes Professor Ernst Sondheimer.

Whenever I did something silly, which was often, he would turn on me and remark (referring to the main problem in my field): "Well, you won't solve the problem of superconductivity this way." And I'm afraid I didn't - this or any other way.