Sorting device for code bearing articles

Claim 1

A SORTING DEVICE INCLUDING, IN COMBINATION WITH A SORTING TABLE, TIMING MEANS TO PHYSICALLY SEPARATE A PLURALITY OF ARTICLES TO BE SORTED AND PLACE THE ARTICLES ON THE TABLE IN AN ORDERED AND TIMED SEQUENCE, PROGRESSING MEANS TO RECEIVE THE ARTICLES AND PHYSICALLY MOVE THEM ALONG THE TABLE, CODE READING MEANS TO PICK UP A CODE PRINTED ON THE ARTICLES, WHICH CODE IS IN THE FORM OF A LINE OF BITS OF VISIBLE MARKINGS WHICH ARE REPRESENTATIVE OF LANGUAGE CHARACTERS BUT ARE NOT THEMSELVES LANGUAGE CHARACTERS, WHEREIN THE SAID MARKINGS ARE PHYSICALLY CONTIGUOUS TO THE CHARACTERS REPRESENTED BY THOSE MARKINGS, THE SAID CHARACTERS ARE VISIBLE AND PRINTED ON THE ARTICLES, THE SAID CODE READING MEANS IS RESPONSIVE TO THE CODE MARKINGS BUT NOT TO THE CHARACTERS, AND THE LINE OF MARKINGS IS ALIGNED IN THE DIRECTION OF MOVEMENT OF THE ARTICLES, THE SAID READING MEANS CONSISTING OF A SINGLE READING HEAD ADAPTED TO READ EACH OF SAID LINES, OPERATING MEANS RESPONSIVE TO THE SAID CODE READING MEANS, AND A PLURALITY OF BINS EACH HAVING A GATE PLATE CONTROLLING THE OPENING INTO ITS BIN, WHEREIN THE OPERATING MEANS MOVES A PLATE IN RESPONSE TO THE CODE ON THE ARTICLE, AND ALSO INCLUDING AN INTERMEDIATE TAPE MECHANISM COMPRISING A FIRST DRIVEN ROLLER RESPONSIVE TO THE CODE READING MEANS SO THAT IT DRIVES ONLY DURING THE READING OF THE CODE, A MAGNETIC WRITE HEAD CONTIGUOUS TO THE FIRST DRIVEN ROLLER, A SECOND DRIVEN ROLLER RESPONSIVE TO THE READY CONDITION OF THE BINS, A MAGNETIC READ HEAD CONTIGUOUS TO THE SECOND DRIVEN ROLLER, AND A CONTINUOUS LOOP OF MAGNETIC TAPE HAVING TWO VARIABLE LOOSE LOOPS, WHEREIN THE WRITE HEAD IS CONNECTED TO THE CODE READING MEANS AND THE READ HEAD IS CONNECTED TO THE OPERATING MEANS.