Document reader for reading data on both sides of a document

Claim 1

A high-speed document reader for rapidly and consecutively reading documents each containing data on both its faces, said document reader comprising reading means responsive to the data on said document, input storage means for temporarily storing in a stack a plurality of documents to be fed to said reading means, means for consecutively feeding individual documents from said input storage means, means defining a feed path to guide a document from said input storage means and present a first face of said document to said reading means, path divider means defining an inverting path for guiding each document without interrupting its movement from said feed path and returning it to said reading means with the other of its faces presented to said reading means, said path divider means defining an inverting path with outgoing and return portions that diverge from a point beneath said reading means, the length of said inverting path being at least as long as the dimension of said document from its leading edge to its trailing edge, output storage means for receiving and stacking documents both faces of which have been read by said reading means, means defining a discharge path from said reading means to said output storage means for receiving a document from said inverting path, said discharge path and feed paths not crossing each other and diverging from a point in the document path beneath said reading means, the height of the document path beneath said reading means being sufficient to allow the simultaneous passage of two documents beneath said reading means, and drive means in continuous driving engagement with each document for positively conveying said document continuously through said paths from said input storage means to said output storage means.