Mark scoring apparatus

Claim 1

IN A MACHINE FOR SCORING DATA ON A RESPONSE DOCUMENT AGAINST DATA ON A MASTER DOCUMENT WITH SAID DOCUMENTS EACH HAVING CORRESPONDING SELECTIVELY MARKABLE ROWS OF AREAS IN WHICH EACH MARK IN A SAID AREA IS AN INFORMATION BIT AND A PREDETERMINED NUMBER OF SAID AREAS IN EACH SAID ROW COMPOSE A DATA WORD, APPARATUS COMPRISING, IN COMBINATION: A PLURALITY OF TRANSDUCER MEANS FOR EACH SAID DATA WORD IN A ROW WITH EACH SAID TRANSDUCER MEANS IN SAID PLURALITY ARRANGED TO SIMULTANEOUSLY SENSE A PREDETERMINED ONE OF SAID AREAS AND PROVIDE AN OUTPUT BIT SIGNAL UPON SENSING A SAID MARK; BUFFER STORAGE MEANS FOR EACH SAID TRANSDUCER MEANS IN A SAID PLURALITY FOR STORING SAID BIT SIGNALS; MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID BUFFER STORAGE MEANS FOR CONCURRENTLY GATING THE BIT SIGNALS IN SAID WORK FROM A SAID TRANSDUCER PLURALITY TO THE CORRESPONDING SAID BUFFER STORAGE MEANS; DELAY LINE MEANS FOR PROVIDING CONTINUOUSLY RECIRCULATING STORAGE FOR SAID BIT SIGNALS IN A WORD BY WORD RELATION; FIRST CONTROL MEANS OPERABLE IN A FIRST STATE DURING THE SENSING OF SAID MASTER DOCUMENT FOR SERIALLY TRANSFERRING SAID BITS FROM SAID BUFFER STORAGE MEANS TO SAID DELAY LINE MEANS, AND OPERABLE IN A SECOND STATE DURING SENSING OF SAID RESPONSE DOCUMENTS FOR BLOCKING SAID BIT SIGNAL TRANSFER FROM SAID BUFFER STORAGE MEANS; READOUT STORAGE MEANS FOR SAID DELAY LINE MEANS ADAPTED TO STORE THE BITS OF A SAID WORD; SECOND CONTROL MEANS OPERABLE WHEN SAID FIRST CONTROL MEANS IS IN SAID SECOND STATE FOR TRANSFERRING THE BITS OF A PREDETERMINED WORD FROM SAID DELAY LINE MEANS TO SAID READOUT STORAGE MEANS; AND MEANS CONNECTED BETWEEN SAID BUFFER STORAGE MEANS AND SAID READOUT STORAGE MEANS FOR COMPARING THE DATA WORDS STORED IN BOTH SAID STORAGE MEANS BIT BY BIT.