To some it might have seemed at odds with the new era of the atom bomb and jet-powered flight.

CNN: The Kon-Tiki: Crossing an ocean on balsa

It emerged that in her capacity as a secretary at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association in London, she had photographed documents on the British atom bomb and passed them on to the KGB.

BBC: Spying scandal spreads

The documents started the hunt for spies such as Kim Philby, a British foreign-policy adviser, and Klaus Fuchs, a scientist passing on technical details about the atom bomb to the Soviet Union.

ECONOMIST: Svetlana Gouzenko