Apparatus for recording characters

Claim 1

APPARATUS FOR RECORDING CHARACTERS CARRIER BY TRACKS PAST A RECORDING POSITION, SIMILAR CHARACTERS IN ALL TRACKS PASSING THE RECORDING POSITION AT THE SAME TIME, INCLUDING MEANS FOR STORING CODED REPRESENTATIONS OF A PLURALITY OF CHARACTERS TO BE RECORDED COMPRISING A LIKE PLURALITY OF GROUPS OF STORAGE ELEMENTS, THE ELEMENTS OF A GROUP BEING SETTABLE TO STORE ALL THE CODE COMPONENTS OF A CHARACTER; MEANS FOR NON-DESTRUCTIVELY READING OUT ALL THE STORED COMPONENTS FROM EACH OF THE GROUPS IN TURN TO OUTPUT LINES COMMON TO ALL THE GROUPS, EACH OF THE OUTPUT LINES RESPECTIVELY CORRESPONDING TO EACH OF ALL THE POSSIBLE CHARACTER CODE COMPONENTS; A GROUP OF AND GATES CONNECTED IN SERIES WITH SAID OUTPUT LINES, A GATE FOR EACH LINE; CODE COMPONENT DISTRIBUTORS CONNECTED DIRECTLY TO SAID GROUP OF GATES AND SCANNED IN SYNCHRONISM WITH THE PASSAGE OF THE TRACKS PAST THE RECORDING POSITION TO ENABLE THOSE GATES OF SAID GROUP CORRESPONDING TO THE CODE COMPONENTS REPRESENTING THE CHARACTERS CURRENTLY AT THE RECORDING POSITION; MEANS FOR DETECTING THE PRESENCE OF SIGNALS PASSED CONCURRENTLY BY ALL SAID ENABLED GATES TO PRODUCE A FINAL SIGNAL; AND MEANS RESPONSIVE TO SAID FINAL SIGNAL TO RECORD A CHARACTER FROM THE TRACK CORRESPONDING TO THE GROUP OF STORAGE DEVICES CURRENTLY BEING READ OUT.