A very tall, patriarchal figure, Alfred Beuttell dominated his two sons, of whom Victor was the elder. In his character Victor took more after his mother, who in 1926 had published a curious pacifist, spiritualist book. He combined her bright-eyed, rather magical charm, with his father's strong good looks. In the 1920s Alfred Beuttell had gone back into research into lighting, and in 1927 had taken out patents on a new invention, the 'K-ray Lighting System'. It was designed to allow uniform illumination of pictures or posters. The idea was to frame a poster in a glass box, whose front surface would be curved in such a way that it reflected light from a strip light at the top exactly evenly over the poster. (Without such a reflection, the poster would be much brighter at the top than at the bottom.) The problem was to find the right formula for the curvature of the glass. Alan was introduced to the problem by Victor, and suddenly produced the formula, without being able to explain it, which agreed with Alfred Beuttell's calculation. But Alan went further, and pointed out the complication which arose through the thickness of the glass, which would cause a second reflection at the front surface. This made necessary a change in the curve of the K-ray System, which was soon put into application for exterior hanging signs, the first contract being with J. Lyons and Co. Ltd., the catering chain.

阿尔弗雷德·别特尔个子很高，很有威严，他有两个儿子，维克托是长子。维克托的性格大部分像他母亲，他母亲在1926年出版过一本关于和平主义者和唯心主义者的书。他兼具母亲明亮的眼神，奇妙的魅力，以及他父亲帅气的外表。20年代时，阿尔弗雷德·别特尔又开始研究照明，1927年取得一项新发明的专利，“K射线照明系统”。这项发明是为了让图片或海报得到均匀一致的照明。想法是把海报放在一个玻璃框里，框的表面是弧形的，反射顶部灯管的光，使光线均匀地照在海报上。（如果没有这样的反射，海报的顶部会比底部更亮）。但这里有一个问题是，如何为玻璃计算最合适的孤度。维克托想到了一个方程，但却无法证明，他把这个问题交给艾伦。结果艾伦想得更加深入，他指出玻璃的厚度会引起更加复杂的问题，也就是表面会引起第二次反射。这使K射线系统的曲面做了重要的修改，并很快应用到外墙悬挂牌匾上。第一笔订单，是来自里昂斯有限公司。

It was characteristic. As with the iodate and sulphite calculation, it always delighted Alan that a mathematical formula could actually work in the physical world. He had always liked practical demonstrations, even though he was not good at them, and although pushed into the corner as the intellectual 'maths brain', did not make the error of considering thought as sullied or lowered by having a concrete manifestation.

就像碘酸盐和亚硫酸盐的计算一样，数学公式在自然界中的应用，总是令艾伦愉快的。他总是喜欢实用的证明，虽然他对此并非很擅长。

There was a parallel development, in that he did not permit the Sherborne 'games' religion to instil in him a contempt for the body. He would have liked to have been as successful with corpus as with mens, and found the same difficulties with both: a lack of coordination and ease of expression. But he had discovered by now that he could run rather well. He would come in first place on the house runs, when rainy weather obliged the cancellation of all important Footer. Victor would go out with him for runs, but after two miles or so would say 'It's no good, Turing, I shall have to go back', only to find Alan overtaking him on the return from a much longer course.

在另一方面，艾伦拒绝舍尔伯尼向他灌输对肉体的排斥。他希望学术和感情同步发展，并且发现这两件事具有共同的困难：他无法协调而自然地表达自己。但是，他发现自己很擅长跑步。每当下雨天，宿舍取消例行的跑步时，他总会第一个出去跑。维克托也会和他出去一起跑，但是大约两公里以后，他说“我不行了，图灵，我得回去了”，然后他在返回的路上，会被跑了更远才返回的艾伦超越。