Circuit arrangement for giving permission to transmit to one of a number of sources of information according to a fixed priority

Claim 1

A SIGNAL TRANSMITTING CIRCUIT COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF SIGNAL SOURCES CONNECTED TO A COMMON OUTPUT TRANSMISSION CHANNEL, AND MEANS FOR SELECTIVELY PERMITTING TRANSMISSION BY SAID SOURCES, SAID SIGNAL SOURCES EACH COMPRISING MEANS PROVIDING A FIRST CONTROL SIGNAL INDICATING THE RESPECTIVE SOURCE IS PREPARED TO TRANSMIT SIGNALS, MEANS RESPONSIVE TO A SECOND CONTROL SIGNAL FOR PERMITTING THE RESPECTIVE SOURCE TO TRANSMIT INFORMATION TO SAID CHANNEL, AND MEANS INDICATING THE END OF A SIGNAL MESSAGE, SAID TRANSMISSION CHANNEL COMPRISING MEANS FOR PROVIDING A THIRD CONTROL SIGNAL UPON THE PASSAGE OF SIGNALS THERETO FROM SAID SOURCES, AND MEANS FOR PROVIDING A FOURTH CONTROL SIGNAL UPON THE RECEPTION OF AN END OF MESSAGE SIGNAL FROM A SIGNAL SOURCE, SAID MEANS FOR SELECTIVELY PERMITTING TRANSMISSION COMPRISING A SEPARATE LOGICAL CIRCUIT CORRESPONDING TO EACH OF SAID SIGNAL SOURCES, EACH LOGICAL CIRCUIT HAVING A FIRST INPUT TERMINAL CONNECTED TO RECEIVE THE FIRST CONTROL SIGNAL OF THE CORRESPONDING SIGNAL SOURCE, SECOND AND THIRD INPUT TERMINALS CONNECTED TO RECEIVE SAID THIRD AND FOURTH CONTROL SIGNALS, RESPECTIVELY, AND AN OUTPUT TERMINAL CONNECTED TO APPLY SAID SECOND CONTROL SIGNAL TO THE CORRESPONDING SIGNAL SOURCE, SAID LOGICAL CIRCUIT BEING RESPONSIVE TO THE SIMULTANEOUS OCCURRENCE OF AT LEAST SIGNALS AT SAID FIRST AND SECOND INPUT TERMINALS FOR INITIATING SAID SECOND CONTROL SIGNAL AT SAID OUTPUT TERMINAL, AND BEING RESPONSIVE TO AT LEAST THE OCCURRENCE OF SIGNALS AT SAID THIRD INPUT TERMINAL FOR STOPPING SAID SECOND SIGNAL AT SAID OUTPUT TERMINAL.