James Bond gadget manual sells at auction

UK: A book containing ingenious James Bond-style gadgets invented in real life by British ‘spooks’ to help prisoners of war escape has fetched 5,000 Pounds at auction.

The 76 page book details what the gadgets were, how they were made and concealed in innocuous domestic items.

The 1942 classified catalogue documents the top secret designs for covert equipment such as tiny compasses concealed in gold teeth and coat buttons, reported The Telegraph.

The gadgets were placed in food parcels and sent to British PoWs in camps like Colditz or the ‘Great Escape’ prison, Stalag Luft III.

Some of them include maps of Germany printed on silk so that they didn’t rustle and crammed inside pencils, vinyl records, cigars and pipes.

Many of the inventions were the brainchild of Christopher Hutton who worked for the government’s little-known MI9 agency and was a real-life ‘Q’ from the 007 movies.

Less than 100 of the instruction manuals were printed and given to US intelligence officers who were way behind the British in espionage design after entering the war late.

The extremely rare copy of the book called ‘Per Ardua Libertas’ - Liberty Through Adversity - was a dummy version retained by the London printing company.

It was sold at auction by a man who inherited it from one of the executives of the company and purchased by a private collector from Canada.

Lionel Willis, a specialist at auctioneers Bonhams which has sold the book, said it was an exceptionally rare find.

- THE DECCAN HERALD