Wide-range count rate meter utilizing plural count rate circuits and a range identifier

Claim 1

A MULTIRANGE PULSE RATE METERING DEVICE COMPRISING: (A) AN INPUT PULSE DRIVER STAGE FOR CONVERTING RANDOM ELECTRICAL PULSES INTO A TRAIN OF UNIFORM HEIGHT ELECTRICAL PULSES DELIVERED AT AN OUTPUT TERMINAL, AND HAVING A WIDTH PROPORTIONAL TO THE TIME INTERVAL BETWEEN CONSECUTIVE RANDOM PULSES; (B) A PLURALITY N OF COUNT RATE CIRCUITS WITH THEIR INPUTS CONNECTED IN PARALLEL TO THE OUTPUT OF SAID DRIVER STAGE, SAID COUNT RATE CIRCUITS INCLUDING MEANS FOR CONVERTING THE OUTPUT PULSES OF SAID DRIVER STAGE INTO AN OUTPUT VALTAGE INDICATIVE OF THE NUMBER OF SAID PULSES, SAID COUNT RATE CIRCUITS HAVING RC TIME CONSTANT INPUT CHARACTERISTICS CORRESPONDING TO PROGRESSIVELY HIGHER ADJACENT COUNT RATE RANGES, AND THE MAXIMUM OUTPUT VOLTAGE OF EACH COUNT RATE CIRCUIT CORRESPONDING TO THE UPPER LIMIT OF ITS RANGE; (C) A COUNT RATE READOUT TERMINAL;