Photosensitive counter of the binary scaler type

Claim 1

A BINARY SCALER COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF STAGES; EACH STAGE INCLUDING A BI-STABLE CIRCUIT CYCLICALLY OPERABLE BETWEEN A FIRST AND A SECOND STABLE STATE, AND AN INPUT MEANS FOR EACH SAID CIRCUIT; MEANS FOR COUPLING AN ENERGIZING VOLTAGE SOURCE ACROSS EACH OF SAID BI-STABLE CIRCUITS; AND A CARRY MEANS IN COMBINATION WITH EACH TWO SUCCESSIVE STAGES INTERRELATING SAID TWO STAGES; EACH SAID CIRCUIT COMPRISING TWO VOLTAGE RESPONSIVE VARIABLE LIGHT SOURCES AND TWO PHOTORESPONSIVE ELEMENTS, ONE OF SAID ELEMENTS BEING CONNECTED ELECTRICALLY ACROSS ONE OF SAID SOURCES AND BEING OPTICALLY COUPLED TO THE OTHER OF SAID SOURCES, THE OTHER OF SAID ELEMENTS BEING CONNECTED ELECTRICALLY ACROSS SAID OTHER OF SAID SOURCES AND BEING OPTICALLY COUPLED TO SAID ONE OF SAID SOURCES; SAID INPUT MEANS COMPRISING MEANS FOR APPLYING AN INPUT SIGNAL SIMULTANEOUSLY ACROSS SAID ONE ELEMENT AND SAID ONE SOURCE IN ELECTRICAL SERIES WITH RESPECT THERETO, AND ACROSS SAID OTHER ELEMENT AND SAID OTHER SOURCE IN ELECTRICAL SERIES WITH RESPECT THERETO; SAID LIGHT SOURCES AND PHOTORESPONSIVE ELEMENTS OF EACH SAID CIRCUIT COOPERATING IN RESPONSE TO SUCCESSIVE INPUT SIGNALS APPLIED TO THE RESPECTIVE INPUT MEANS TO EFFECT SAID CYCLICAL OPERATION, ONE CYCLE OF OPERATION FOR EACH PAIR OF INPUT SIGNALS APPLIED TO SAID RESPECTIVE INPUT MEANS; SAID FIRST AND SECOND STABLE STATES BEING DEFINED BY DIFFERENT STATES OF SAID LIGHT SOURCES; AND EACH SAID CARRY MEANS INCLUDING PHOTORESPONSIVE MEANS OPTICALLY COUPLED WITH SAID OTHER OF SAID LIGHT SOURCES OF THE EARLIER OR ITS RESPECTIVE TWO STAGES FOR COUPLING AN INPUT SIGNAL TO THE INPUT MEANS OF THE LATER OF ITS RESPECTIVE TWO STAGES ALONG WITH THE APPLICATION OF AN INPUT SIGNAL TO THE INPUT MEANS OF SAID EARLIER STAGE, ONLY WHEN SAID EARLIER STAGE IS IN SAID SECOND STABLE STATE AT THE TIME OF APPLICATION OF THE LAST-MENTIONED INPUT SIGNAL; EACH SAID CARRY MEANS PHOTORESPONSIVE MEANS BEING CONNECTED IN ELECTRICAL PARALLEL AND OTHERWISE ELECTRICALLY ISOLATED RELATIONSHIP WITH EACH OTHER WITH RESPECT TO SAID ENERGIZING VOLTAGE COUPLING MEANS.