Reversible counter

Claim 1

REVERSIBLE DIRECT-COUPLED COUNTING APPARATUS COMPRISING A COUNTING DEVICE HAVING A CURRENT SOURCE, A PLURALITY OF ELECTRODES AND TRANSLATING MEANS HAVING TWO INPUT LINES RESPONSIVE TO INPUT SIGNALS FOR APPLYING CURRENT SUCCESSIVELY TO EACH OF SAID ELECTRODES, MEANS CONNECTED TO A PAIR OF SAID ELECTRODES FOR DERIVING CARRY SIGNALS DURING THE BEGINNING OF A CARRY CYCLE IN EITHER DIRECTION, AND GATING MEANS RESPONSIVE TO SAID CARRY SIGNALS AND SAID INPUT SIGNALS FOR APPLYING SAID INPUT SIGNALS TO SIMILAR TRANSLATING MEANS OF A SIMILAR ADJACENT HIGHER ORDER COUNTING STAGE, SAID GATING MEANS COMPRISING A BI-STABLE FLIP-FLOP CONNECTED TO SAID TWO INPUT LINES OF SAID SIMILAR TRANSLATING MEANS THROUGH FIRST AND SECOND "AND" GATES, SAID "AND" GATES EACH ALSO BEING CONNECTED TO ONE OF SAID SIGNAL INPUT LINES TO PROVIDE AN OUTPUT SIGNAL UPON SIMULTANEOUS RECEIPT OF AN INPUT SIGNAL AND A SIGNAL FROM SAID FLIP-FLOP, SAID FLIP-FLOP HAVING TWO INPUT LINES, ONE OF SAID FLIP-FLOP INPUT LINES BEING CONNECTED TO A THIRD "AND" GATE RESPONSIVE TO BOTH OF SAID SIGNAL INPUT LINES AND THE OTHER OF SAID FLIP-FLOP INPUT LINES BEING CONNECTED TO THE OUTPUT TERMINAL OF AN "OR" GATE HAVING TWO INPUT LINES, EACH OF SAID "OR" GATE INPUT LINES BEING CONNECTED BY MEANS OF A FURTHER "AND" GATE TO BE ACTUATED UPON SIMULTANEOUS OCCURRENCE OF ABSENCE OF AN INPUT SIGNAL ON AN INDIVIDUAL ONE OF SAID SIGNAL INPUT LINES AND TRANSLATION OF SAID CURRENT TO AN INDIVIDUAL ONE OF SAID PAIR OF ELECTRODES.