 John Bell has highlighted the role played by Linfoot's political awareness, in particular his relationship with Heilbronn who had been forced to flee Nazi Germany.Suspecting a second world war was imminent, and knowing his delicate constitution would not make it through military physical examinations, Linfoot decided to contribute to the future war with scientific advancements in the field of optics.Other contributing factors to this change in focus were his lifelong fondness for astronomy and, by Linfoot's own testimony, a feeling that he had reached the limits of his pure mathematical creativity.