A STUDENT has uncovered how Oxford University Press helped to protect crucial intelligence documents during the Second World War with James Bond-style gadgets.

Hidden copper rivets, highly flammable paper and vanishing ink were just some of the techniques developed by the Walton Street publisher to protect secret military intelligence.

Research has revealed how the OUP produced an enormous quantity of codebooks, cypher books and geographical handbooks quickly, efficiently and in absolute secrecy, with work carried out for the Admiralty and the Government.

Atalanta Myerson, 27, a PhD student in the centre for writing, publishing and printing history at Reading University, found evidence in the archives of Oxford University Press that show how experiments were conducted on ink that could disappear when it came into contact with water, and highly flammable paper that would ignite with friction. Copper rivets and lead were also bound into the secret books so that they would immediately sink to the bottom when thrown into the sea.

Miss Myerson, from Kidlington, said: "My research into this fascinating area of history has revealed that Oxford University Press played a previously unrecognised, but vital, role during the war effort.

"Although other British printing firms also produced secret naval intelligence material, the OUP had the largest workload and was regarded by the Admiralty as printing house number one. I am planning to turn my research material into a book, and I am open to offers from all publishers, especially OUP."

Martin Maw, archivist at Oxford University Press, added: "This is excellent work by Atalanta - she has uncovered OUP's secret wartime history."

By June 1941, secret work was accounting for 75 per cent of the press's entire output.