Capacitive pickoff unbalance detector and encoder circuit

Claim 1

AN ACCELERATION SENSING DEVICE RESPONSIVE TO APPLIED ACCELERATIONS FOR PRODUCING AN ELECTRICAL OUTPUT SIGNAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE AMPLITUDE AND POLARITY OF THE ACCELERATIONS, SAID DEVICE COMPRISING: A CONDUCTIVE REED MEANS SUBSTANTIALLY STATIONARY IN A NULL POSITION IN THE ABSENCE OF APPLIED ACCELERATIONS AND MOVEABLE THEREFROM IN EITHER DIRECTION ALONG A SENSITIVE AXIS IN RESPONSE TO ACCELERATIONS APPLIED ALONG SAID AXIS; A PAIR OF SUBSTANTIALLY PARALLEL CONDUCTIVE PLATES POSITIONED ON EACH SIDE OF SAID REED MEANS SO AS TO FORM THEREWITH A FIRST AND SECOND VARIABLE CAPACITOR, SAID REED BEING A COMMON PLATE THE MOVEMENT OF WHICH CAUSES THE CAPACITANCE BETWEEN SAID FIRST AND SECOND CAPACITORS TO VARY; PULSE MEANS CONNECTED BETWEEN SAID REED MEANS AND SAID PLATES FOR APPLYING A PERIODIC VOLTAGE PULSE TO SAID PLATES TO CHARGE SAID CAPACITORS TO A VALVE DEPENDENT UPON THE POSITION OF SAID REED MEANS; A BISTABLE MEANS FOR PRODUCING A SIGNAL OF A FIRST STATE WHEN THE CHARGE ON SAID FIRST CAPACITOR IS GREATER THAN THE CHARGE ON SAID SECOND CAPACITOR AND FOR PRODUCING A SIGNAL OF A SECOND STATE WHEN THE CHARGE ON SAID SECOND CAPACITOR IS LARGER THAN THE CHARGE ON SAID FIRST CAPACITOR, SAID BISTABLE MEANS BEING PERIODICALLY DISABLED FROM SENSING SAID CHARGES BY SAID PULSE MEANS, WHEREBY THE STATE OF SAID BISTABLE MEANS INDICATES THE POLARITY OF SAID SENSED ACCELERATIONS AND THE DURATION OF SAID STATES INDICATES THE MAGNITUDE OF SAID SENSED ACCELERATIONS.