Charles Nelson Pogue

Who is Charles Nelson Pogue?

Charles Nelson Pogue was a Canadian mechanic and inventor who in the 1930s filed a series of US patents for a miracle carburetor that would enable a car to attain 200 mpg, and described as a vapourising or sometimes a catalytic carburetor. But the 1936 announcement was not followed by any verifiable tests or demonstrations.

The carburetor is described in several publicly available patents which have now expired, and there is no evidence that the patents were ever suppressed or that the rights were bought up by the oil industry, the motor industry or the government. The patents included: U.S. Patent 1,750,354, U.S. Patent 1,938,497, U.S. Patent 1,997,497 & U.S. Patent 2,026,798.

A recent version of the story from Cornwall, England has the original blueprints supposedly turning up in a secret compartment in a retired mechanic’s toolbox. The story claims that the Toronto Stock Exchange “was rocked” in the 1930s, and that Pogue was given a job as manager of a factory making oil filters for the motor industry.