Line printer buffer

Claim 1

A PRINTER BUFFER FOR RECEIVING BINARY CODED CHARACTERS AND TRANSFERRING THEM TO A PRINTER THAT HAS PRINT CHARACTERS TRANSPORTED PAST A PRINT POSITION, SAID BUFFER COMPRISING, IN COMBINATION, (A) BISTABLE MEMORY ELEMENTS SCHEMATICALLY ORDERED IN ROWS AND IN COLUMNS, (B) COINCIDENCE DETECTING CIRCUITS CONNECTED TO SAID ELEMENTS IN EACH COLUMN THEREOF AND CAPABLE OF PROVIDING AN OUTPUT SIGNAL ONLY WHEN THE STATES OF SAID ELEMENTS IN A COLUMN REPRESENT A PREDETERMINED SUCCESSION OF BINARY DIGITS, (C) LOAD MEANS CONNECTED TO STORE CHARACTERS IN SAID COLUMNS BY SUCCESSIVELY COMPLEMENTING SAID ELEMENTS IN SAID ROWS THEREOF ACCORDING TO THE SERIES OF DIGITS TO BE STORED IN A SELECTED COLUMN, CONDITIONING EACH ELEMENT IN SAID SELECTED COLUMN TO BE IN A SELECTED STATE, AND COMPLEMENTING THE SAME ROWS THAT WERE PREVIOUSLY COMPLEMENTED, (D) READOUT MEANS OPERATIVE ALTERNATELY WITH RESPECT TO SAID LOAD MEANS, (E) SENSING MEANS DELIVERING TO SAID READOUT MEANS A PULSE FOR EACH PRINT CHARACTER THAT PASSES SAID PRINT POSITION, SAID READOUT MEANS BEING CONNECTED TO CONDITION ALL ELEMENTS IN EACH COLUMN THEREOF TO REGISTER SAID SUCCESSION OF DIGITS WHENEVER THE CHARACTER STORED IN THE COLUMN BY SAID LOAD MEANS CORRESPONDS TO A SELECTED PRINT CHARACTER.