Between 1920 and 1926, Wells pioneered aquaculture techniques to culture bivalves. Wells was experimenting with the recently-invented De Laval milk clarifier, and discovered microscopic oyster larvae in the denser portion of clarified seawater. One previous experimenter, William Keith Brooks, had developed a way to harvest oyster gametes, but the resulting oyster larvae starved to death before they grew large enough to be filtered out of the water. Because they were so small, any attempt to change the water (thus providing new food) would remove the larvae too. Wells's innovation was to use the clarifier to concentrate the larvae. He used Brooks' method to acquire gametes, and grew them to adulthood in clarified seawater. By adding fresh seawater each day, and then using the clarifier to concentrate the larvae, Wells was able to resupply their food without losing them.
