The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-01
COUNTERFE|TER AN
 INVENTIVE GENIUS Device Conceived in Prison May Make Him Rich PATENT WILL BE ISSUED John D. Salisbury Perfects Device for Reloadine Rifle Shells With Steel
 Jacketed Bullets That Is
 Quite Valuable.
PATENT WILL BE ISSUED
Rutland, Vt, Special to the New York

Rutland. Vt, Special to the New York
 World.
 John D. Salisbury, electrical engineer, chemist, inventor and one of the clever est counterfeiters with whom the secret service men have been called upon to deal in years, has been discharged from the house of correction after serving sentence for showing the queer" and ex- poets to become wealthy through de- vice he had invented for reloading rifle shells with steel-jacketed bullets. A patent applied for while Salisbury was still in prison will be issued within a few weeks when the manufacture of the re- loader will be taken up by an arms com- pany in Springfield. Mass.
 Salisbury. who is native of Batavia, N. Y, is a remarkable man in many ways. In his youth he specialized in theoretical and practical chemistry, studied electric ity and mechanical engineering and per feeted himself in the manufacture of explosives. When the Spanish war broke out he joined signal corps, went to the Philippines, was taken prison by the na- uyes and was an eye witness Of the cap ture of Aguinaldo.
 Shortly after he got back to the Amer ican camp he was taken i'll and was sent to San Francisco, where to alleviate his sufferings the hospital physicians pre- scribed morphine. He ultimately recov- cred, but the drug habit stuck to him, and to this he lays his downfall. Sauls- bury tried in every way he knew how to throw off the habit, but he failed com pletely, and instead of mastering it he took more and more morphine, until he became d physical wreck. He then sought the advice of physicians, and they told him there was little hope as he had a weak heart and could not stand the usual heroic remedies.
 His pocketbook was at this time about empty and he was hard put to 1t when in one of his morphine creams, he says he conceived the idea of counterfeiting the American half dollars. When he came to his sense he remembered the dream and decided to follow out the idea. His knowledge of chemistry and mechanics made it easy to construct dies and pre- pare metal. and his first lot of half dol- lars pleased him so greatly that he set about making q second lot. These were even better than the first and he struck off more.
 Then he began showing" the spurious coin This. too. was easy, and for long time the half dollars passed muster and were accepted as good But one day the
  hands on one and the secret service off cers were notified They set to work on the case and soon landed Salisbury, who, though an expert counterfeiter, was an amatuer when it came to keeping out of the laws clutches As the half dollars had been so ceverly counterfeited as to baffle the treasury department for two days before the officers could make up their minds that they were really spu- rious they were exceedingly anxious to capture Salisbury.
 After arresting the counterfeiter the de- tectives were greatly surprised to find that he had destroyed his dies and they were forced to believe him when he said that he had made only enough to tide him over while he could take a mild but long treatment for the morphine habit They were so thoroughly impressed with the story. In fact, that they recommended a light sentence, and Salisbury was given only eight months.
 The man asked to go to the house of correction instead of the state prison at Windsor and on his arrival became such a handy man that he was practically al- l lowed his liberty. In his leisure hours he | experimented with explosives, inYenting his reloading device and perfectng a shotgun powder which will leave no res l due in the barrel. At the time of his l release he was installing a complicated l telephone system in the prison, and as 1t was not quite completed he asked to be l allowed to remain until this week so that 1 he could finish the job.
 l Sausbury Is completely over the nor 1 phine habit and looks upon his imprison- ment providential. He has applied for work here and will probably get 1t. If he fails he will go to his old home in Batavia and continue inventing.