The experiment was made in 1851 and used by Mr. Kelly advantageously for many years. Being almost isolated in practically a wilderness, thirty miles from even the nearest country press, the inventor failed to advertise and take proper advantage of his invention. In 1855, however, many of the steamboats plying the Ohio River were using boiler plates made from iron prepared by "Kelly's air-boiling process." The next year Henry Bessemer, an iron manufacturer of England, took out a patent for this pneumatic process, to which his name has been given; but, although Mr. Kelly was delayed in securing his patent by his attorney, when the claim was heard by the commissioner of the Patent Office in this country, it was decided that Mr. Kelly was the inventor and his patent was at once granted. For many years Mr. Kelly received a royalty on his interest in the inventions. In time the patents of Kelly, Bessemer, and Mushet were combined. Prior to this discovery, steel cost five times as much as iron; now steel rails, wearing four times as long as iron, cost only a few dollars more per ton. Thus we see the incalculable importance of another Kentucky invention, for now steel is made directly from pig iron in about thirty minutes, instead of as formerly in almost as many days. KENTUCKY ARTISTS While Kentucky's sons and daughters have enriched the field of science by inventions and discoveries, they have not neglected the fine arts. Among the painters, Matthew H. Jouett of Mercer County from early childhood displayed a talent by drawing sketches with a lead pencil. He became a pupil of Gilbert Stuart, who always called him "Kentucky." Jouett, on the occasion of La Fayette's visit, painted the noted general, and from that sketch painted the life-sized one that hangs in the State House. His pictures were on exhibition at the World's Fair at Chicago and compared favorably with those of the best foreign painters. It is said that Thomas S. Noble, another native of Kentucky who has won fame with his brush, exclaimed after viewing Jouett's portraits, "Rembrandt is next to God and Jouett is next to Rembrandt." The Honorable Charles Summers, who had made a study of foreign artists, on seeing one of Jouett's portraits, examined it closely and exclaimed, "What a glorious Van Dyck!" Richard Jouett Menefee made a catalogue a few years ago of three hundred and thirty-four paintings by his grandfather. [Illustration: Matthew H. Jouett.] In Frankfort was born another boy, Joseph H. Bush, whose talents at an early age caused him to use his mother's hearth and a piece of charcoal to sketch a profile of his father. Among his noted works are portraits of General Zachary Taylor, Benjamin W. Dudley, and Governor John Adair.