1891 list No. 39).

During the organization of the plant at Wyandotte, Kelly was called
back to Cambria, probably by Daniel J. Morrell, who, later, became a
partner with Ward and Z. S. Durfee in the formation of the Kelly
Pneumatic Process Company.[114] We learn from John E. Fry,[115] the
iron moulder who was assigned to help Kelly, that--

in 1862 Mr. Kelly returned to Johnstown for a crucial, and as it
turned out, a final series of experiments by him with a rotative
[Bessemer converter] _made abroad and imported for his purpose_.
This converter embodied in its materials and construction several
of Mr. Bessemer's patented factors, of which, up to the close of
Mr. Kelly's experiments above noted, he seemed to have no knowledge
or conception. And it was as late as on the occasion of his return
in 1862, to operate the experimental Bessemer converter, that he
first recognized, by its adoption, the necessity for or the
importance of any after treatment of, or additions required by the
blown metal to convert it into steel.

[114] Swank, _op. cit._ (footnote 42), p. 409.

[115] _Johnstown Daily Democrat_, souvenir edition, autumn 1894
(italics supplied). Mr. Fry was at the Cambria Iron Works from
1858 until after 1882.

Fry later asserted[116] that Kelly's experiments in 1862 were simply
attempts to copy Bessemer's methods. (The possibility is under
investigation that the so-called "pioneer converter" now on loan to the
U.S. National Museum from the Bethlehem Steel Company, is the
converter referred to by Fry.)

[116] _Engineering_, 1896, vol. 61, p. 615.

William Kelly, in effect, disappeared from the record until 1871 when
he applied for an extension of his patent of June 23, 1857. The
application was opposed (by whom, the record does not state) on the
grounds that the invention was not novel when it was originally issued,
and that it would be against the public interest to extend its term.
The Commissioner ruled that,[117] on the first question, it was settled
practice of the Patent Office not to reconsider former decisions on
questions of fact; the novelty of Kelly's invention had been
re-examined when the patent was reissued in November 1857. Testimony
showed that the patent was very valuable; and that Kelly "had been
untiring in his efforts to introduce it into use but the opposition of
iron manufacturers and the amount of capital required