EVEN geniuses sometimes know when they are beat.

World-famous physicist Albert Einstein, left, was put out on the front step when he tried to light up his pipe at the home of surgeon Professor Archibald Young when he visited Glasgow in June 1933.

You can almost here Mrs Young saying: 'Archie, would you and your German pal please take your foul-smelling tobacco outside. I don't want the front parlour smelling like an ashtray.'

With the whole Scottish press pack camped outside his Park Gardens home for a glimpse of the inventor of the Theory of Relativity, the brainy pair decided to give them the photo they wanted by stepping outside for a fly puff.

Professor Einstein was in the city to accept an honorary degree from Glasgow University.