Special code tape reading system

Claim 1

APPARATUS FOR READING OUT A PLURALITY OF CHANNELS OF A MAGNETIC STORAGE MEDIUM, EACH CHANNEL HAVING MAGNETIC INDICIA SERIALLY RECORDED IN ADJACENT CELLS, SAID INDICIA BEING RESPECTIVELY REPRESENTATIVE OF ONE OF FOUR POSSIBLE COMBINATIONS OF A PAIR OF BINARY DIGITS, EACH OF SAID MAGNETIC INDICIA INCLUDING A FIRST POLARITY REVERSAL DEFINING THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN THE PRESENT AND THE PRECEDING CELLS AND A SECOND OPPOSITELY DIRECTED POLARITY REVERSAL SPACED FROM SAID FIRST POLARITY REVERSAL A DISTANCE CHARACTERISTIC OF THE DIGIT COMBINATION REPRESENTED, COMPRISING FOR EACH CHANNEL A MAGNETIC READ HEAD POSITIONED AT A READOUT STATION, AMPLIFYING AND PEAK DETECTION MEANS COUPLED TO SAID READ HEAD, A FIRST FLIP-FLOP CIRCUIT CONNECTED TO SAID LAST-RECITED MEANS TO PROVIDE A RESPONSIVE BILEVEL DATA SIGNAL HAVING TRANSISTIONS CORRESPONDING TO SAID POLARITY REVERSALS, A CLOCK CIRCUIT COUPLED TO SAID FIRST FLIP-FLOP CIRCUIT ADAPTED TO PROVIDE TIMING SIGNALS, FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD INTEGRATING CIRCUITS HAVING DIFFERENT RATES OF RISE AND FALL, MEANS FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY ENERGIZING EACH OF SAID LASTRECITED CIRCUITS FROM SAID FIRST FLIP-FLOP CIRCUIT TO PROVIDE SEPARATE INTEGRATION SIGNALS, MEANS FOR TERMINATING SAID INTEGRATION SIGNALS WITH SAID TIMING SIGNALS, FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD CROSSOVER DETECTION MEANS RESPECTIVELY COUPLED TO CORRESPONDING ONES OF SAID INTEGRATING CIRCUITS AND ADAPTED TO PROVIDE DIRECT AND INVERTED OUTPUT SIGNALS DISPLAYING A CHANGE OF SIGNAL LEVELS IN RESPONSE TO EACH DETECTED CROSSOVER, DECODING MEANS RESPONSIVE TO A FIRST SET OF SAID DIRECT AND INVERTED OUTPUT SIGNALS TO DERIVE A PAIR OF SIGNALS JOINTLY REPRESENTATIVE OF THE BINARY DIGIT PAIR WHICH CORRESPONDS TO THE MAGNETIC INDICIA READ OUT FOR SAID CHANNEL, DETECTION MEANS RESPONSIVE TO A SECOND SET OF SAID DIRECT AND INVERTED OUTPUT SIGNALS TO DERIVE A SIGNAL INDICATIVE OF THE VALIDITY OF SAID FIRST SET OF OUTPUT SIGNALS, MEANS FOR APPLYING SAID OUTPUT SIGNALS TO SAID DECODING AND DETECTION MEANS RESPECTIVELY IN SYNCHRONISM WITH SAID TIMING SIGNALS, BUFFERING MEANS CONNECTED TO RECEIVE VALIDITY INDICATION SIGNALS DERIVED FROM ALL OF SAID CHANNELS TO PROVIDE A SINGLE RESPONSIVE SIGNAL, A REGISTER, AND MEANS FOR SEPARATELY STORING RESPECTIVE SIGNAL PAIRS DERIVED FROM ALL OF SAID CHANNELS IN SAID REGISTER IN ASSOCIATION WITH SAID SINGLE SIGNAL.