How the CIA copied James Bond's gadgets

^{The ejector seat button, left, and the machine gun on James Bond's silver 1964 Aston Martin DB5 (ANDREW CROWLEY)}

"There was a surprising two-way influence between the CIA and the James Bond novels during the Cold War, stemming from the mutual admiration between CIA director Allen Dulles and Bond author Ian Fleming," said Dr Moran.

"This ranged from the copying of devices to the agency using the 007 novels to improve its public profile."

In an edition of Life magazine, from 1964, Dulles described his meeting with the "brilliant and witty" Fleming in London in 1959, where the author told him the CIA was not doing enough in the area of "special devices."

On his return to the US, Dulles urged CIA technical staff to replicate as many of Bond's devices as they could. The flick-knife shoes were produced for spies, although the Goldfinger honing device could not be made to work - cities confused the signal.

The team from Warwick University combed the archives in the Soviet press, and found that Russia's leaders were laughing about the friendship between Dulles and Fleming.

"The Communists were talking a great deal about their links, which was recorded in newspapers of the era," he said. "And they were saying how useless must the CIA be if they are relying on a British novelist for inspiration."

Dr Moran, who has written books on the CIA and curated an exhibition of Bond villains, analysed a series of declassified letters from the 1950s and 60s. They show a firm friendship between Fleming and Dulles, with Dulles persuading Fleming to show the CIA in a positive light.

"For a long time the James Bond books had a monopoly on the CIA's public image, and the agency used this to its advantage," said Dr Moran.

"The early 007 novels written in the 1950s introduce millions of readers to the CIA for the first time, through the character of its agent Felix Leiter. Although Fleming's portrayal of the CIA is largely favourable readers are left in no doubt the British intelligence services are the superior outfit.

"But in the later books, as the friendship between Dulles and Fleming deepens, a far rosier picture of the CIA emerges. And Allen Dulles is even the subject of several honourable mentions in the later books. It really does come across as a bit of a mutual appreciation society."