Electronic ordering price computing and billing system

Claim 1

IN COMBINATION IN AN ORDERING, PRICE COMPUTER AND BILLING SYSTEM, A COMPUTER INCLUDING A PLURALITY OF ITEM QUANTITY MEMORY DEVICES WITH ASSOCIATED KEYING CONTROLS, ONE FOR EACH OF A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT COMMODITY ITEMS OF PREDETERMINED PRICE VALUES AVAILABLE FOR ORDERING, AND ADAPTED TO PRODUCE AND STORE AN OUTPUT SIGNAL REPRESENTING INFORMATION ON THE QUANTITY OF ITS PARTICULAR ITEM ENTERED THEREIN BY OPERATION OF ONE OF THE ASSOCIATED CONTROLS BY THE OPERATOR OF THE SYSTEM, IF ORDERED ON A PARTICULAR ORDER FROM A CUSTOMER, SCANNER MEANS FOR SAMPLING THE OUTPUT SIGNALS OF ALL OF SAID MEMORY DEVICES IN SEQUENCE TO DETERMINE THOSE IN WHICH ORDERS HAVE BEEN PLACED, MEANS FOR SEQUENTIALLY CONVERTING THE SAMPLED SIGNALS FIRST INTO BINARY PRICE INFORMATION AND THEN INTO EQUIVALENT TRAINS OF DECIMAL PULSES THE NUMBER OF WHICH IN EACH TRAIN REPRESENTS THE TOTAL PRIVE OF A DIFFERENT ONE OF THE ITEMS ON THE ORDER, ACCUMULATOR MEANS FED FROM THE SIGNAL OUTPUT OF EACH OF THE MEMORY DEVICES IN WHICH ORDERS HAVE BEEN PLACED AND THE DECIMAL PULSE OUTPUT OF THE CONVERTING MEANS FOR RESPECTIVELY ACCUMULATING AND STORING INFORMATION ON THE QUANTITY OF EACH OF THE ITEMS, THE ITEM TOTAL PRICE AND THE TOTAL RUNNING PRIVE OF THE ORDER AND MEANS FOR VISUALLY INDICATING THE ACCUMULATED AND STORED INFORMATION TO A CUSTOMER, AND WHEREIN SAID MEANS FOR CONVERTING THE SAMPLED SIGNALS INTO BINARY PRICE INFORMATION INCLUDES A DIODE MATRIX ADAPTED TO INERT DECIMEL INFORMATION INTO BINARY FORM AND PROVIDE AT ITS DIODE TERMINALS INFORMATION REPRESENTING ANY PREDETERMINED PRICE POSSIBLE FOR THE ORDER ITEMS ON A SINGLE ORDER, AND EACH OF SAID MEMORY DEVICES COMPRISES A MULTIPOSITION, BIDIRECTIONAL RING COUNTER, WITH ASSOCIATED ORDER CONTROL INCLUDING AN ADD CONTROL MEANS, AND THE TOTAL ITEM PRICE FOR ANY QUANTITY OF AN ITEM ORDERED IS PROVIDED AND ENCODED BY THE OPERATOR BY OPERATING THE ADD CONTROL MEANS A NUMBER OF TIMES EQUAL TO THE QUANTITY OF THAT ITEM ORDER TO ADVANCE THE ASSOCIATED RING COUNTER TO A CORRESPONDINGLY NUMBERED OUTPUT POSITION, AND WHEN THE RING COUNTER STEPS ITSELF BACK TO ZERO UNITS AFTER SUCH OPERATION, THE TOTAL PRICE FOR THAT QUANTITY OF THE ITEM IS EFFECTIVELY ENTERED IN BINARY FORM IN SAID DIODE MATRIX AN EQUAL NUMBER OF TIMES.