The future in which our energy needs were met by white clover never materialized.
I wonder if there was something special about white clover that produced more/better gas? Or had they simply succeeded in producing the kind of
biogas that can be derived from any plant material?
![](https://www.weirduniverse.net/images/2023/1935clover.jpg)
St. Lous Post-Dispatch - Nov 17, 1935
![](https://www.weirduniverse.net/images/2023/1935clover02.jpg)
Lowry City Independent - Dec 26, 1935
Two Students Learn Secret of Clover Gas
ST. Paul, Minn. Nov. 6 (1935) — Discovery of a method for manufacturing a commercially adaptable gas from ordinary clover was claimed today by Dean R.U. Jones, head of the MacAlaster college chemistry department, for two of his students.
Dean Jones attributed "great possibilities" to the discovery. William Mahle and Harold Ohlgren, the latter a football star, said they developed the gas from a secret process, accidentally encountered.
Both seniors, Marle and Ohlgren conducted experiments under the direction of Dean Jones and Prof. R.B. Hastings of the college physics department. They worked with white clover plucked from roadsides.
"I am convinced," Dean Jones said, "there are great possibilities in the boys' discovery, and I believe it can be worked out commercially. I am proud of the boys, for I gave them a problem and they went far ahead of me."
Category: 1930s | Power Generation