Photocomposing and justifying apparatus

Claim 1

IN A PHOTOCOMPOSING MACHINE, A SOURCE OF WRITTEN COPY MATTER CONTAINING A COLUMN OF UNJUSTIFIED LINES OF PROPORTIONAL CHARACTERS AND SPACING, MEANS FOR CODING EACH LINE OF SAID COPY IN A MANNER UNIQUE TO THE DEGREE OF LATERAL EXPANSION NEEDED TO JUSTIFY THAT LINE, A CONVEYOR FOR SAID COPY MATTER, A COPYING STATION FOR SAID CONVEYOR, MEANS FOR ARRESTING SAID CONVEYOR AS EACH LINE OF CHARACTERS ARRIVES AT THE COPYING STATION, A TELEVISION PICKUP TUBE, AN OPTICAL SYSTEM FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY PROJECTING THE COMPLETE LINE OF COPY MATTER IN SAID COPYING STATION ONTO SAID PICKUP TUBE, A RECEIVING TUBE, A LATERAL SWEEP GENERATOR FOR SAID RECEIVING TUBE INCLUDING AN AMPLIFIER STAGE OF SELECTIVELY VARIABLE GAIN, MEANS FOR TRANSFERRING THE IMAGE FROM SAID PICKUP TUBE ONTO SAID RECEIVING TUBE, PHOTOELECTRIC MEANS FOR DETECTING THE JUSTIFYING CODING INDICATIVE OF THE JUSTIFYING REQUIREMENT OF THE LINE, MEANS FOR AUTOMATICALLY SELECTING THE GAIN OF SAID SWEEP AMPLIFIER IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE JUSTIFYING CODING SO AS TO OBTAIN A FIXED LINE WIDTH ON SAID RECEIVING TUBE, A PHOTOSENSITIVE SURFACE, AND OPTICAL MEANS FOR PROJECTING THE IMAGE FORMED ON SAID RECEIVING TUBE ONTO THE PHOTOSENSITIVE SURFACE.