Direct analog converter

Claim 1

IN APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING A BINARY REPRESENTATION OF A VOLTAGE LEVEL, A DIVIDING CIRCUIT HAVING INPUT AND OUTPUT MEANS, MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID INPUT MEANS FOR CHARGING SAID CIRCUIT TO SAID VOLTAGE LEVEL, TIMING MEANS FOR PRODUCING PULSES AT PREDETERMINED INTERVALS AND HAVING AN OUTPUT CONNECTED TO SAID INPUT MEANS, MEANS TO EXPONENTIALLY DECAY THE VOLTAGE LEVEL OF SAID DIVIDING CIRCUIT AT A RATE EQUIVALENT TO DIVIDING SAID VOLTAGE LEVEL BY SUCCESSIVELY INCREASING POWERS OF TWO AT INTERVALS RELATED TO SAID PREDETERMINED INTERVALS, LOGIC MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID OUTPUT MEANS AND BEING ADAPTED TO COMPARE THE OUTPUT VOLTAGE APPEARING AT THE OUTPUT MEANS TO A SERIES OF ODD AND EVEN REFERENCE LEVELS, SAID LOGIC MEANS PROVIDING ELECTRICAL SIGNALS HAVING COMPONENTS OF A FIRST VALUE CORRESPONDING TO EVEN OUTPUT VOLTAGES AND HAVING COMPONENTS OF A SECOND VALUE CORRESPONDING TO ODD OUTPUT VOLTAGES, AND MEANS RESPONSIVE TO SAID ELECTRICAL SIGNALS AND ADAPTED TO PRODUCE BINARY OUTPUT CHARACTERS IN RESPONSE THERETO.