Semiautomatic call placement and message delivery arrangement

Claim 2

In a telephone branch switching system having an attendant station, an arrangement for establishing call connections to a plurality of called stations comprising a memory, means responsive to the receipt of station number signals from said attendant station for sequentially registering representations of said signals in said memory for a plurality of called stations, control means responsive to the registering of said representations of said signals for automatically establishing call connections to each of said plurality of called stations in the order in which said signals were received from said attendant station, timing means responsive to the establishment of a connection to one of said called stations by said control means for timing a predetermined interval and generating an output signal upon the expiration of said predetermined interval, indicating means activated in response to said output signal for supplying said attendant station with the station number of said one called station and an indication of failure to complete a call to said one called station, and means responsive to an answer signal from said one called station for inhibiting the activation of said indicating means.

Claim 3

The arrangement of claim 1 further comprising announcement means supplying a recorded message, and means responsive to an answer signal from one of said called stations for connecting said announcement means to said one called station over an established connection.

Claim 4

The arrangement of claim 2 further comprising means responsive to the end of said recorded message for causing said control means to establish a call connection to another one of said called stations.

Claim 5

The arrangement of claim 1 further comprising means responsive to said output signal for causing said control means to establish a call connection to another one of said called stations.

Claim 6

An arrangement connected to a telephone branch switching system for providing message delivery service to stations of said switching system comprising a memory, input means activated in response to a predetermined signal from a system attendant station for receiving signals identifying stations of said switching system from said attendant station and for registering representations of said received signals in said memory, control means activated in response to the registration of a station signal representation in said memory for transmitting an identification of said station from said memory to said switching system to enable said system to establish a connection to a station identified by said transmitted identification, announcement means supplying a recorded message, means responsive to an answer signal over said established connection for connecting said announcement means over said established connection to said identified station and for removing said station signal representation from said memory, timing means responsive to the transmission of said station identification to said switching system for timing a predetermined interval including means generating an output signal upon the expiration of said predetermined interval, first indicating means activated in response to said output signal for supplying said attendant station with said station identifying signal and an indication of a failure to complete a call to said identified station including means for removing said station signal representation from said memory, and means responsive to an answer signal over said established connection for inhibiting the activation of said indicating means.

Claim 7

An arrangement connected to a telephone branch switching system for providing message delivery service to stations of said switching system comprising a memory, input means activated in response to a predetermined signal from a system attendant station for receiving signals identifying stations of said switching system from said attendant station and for registering representations of said received signals in said memory, control means activated in response to the registration of a station signal representation in said memory for transmitting an identification of said station from said memory to said switching system to enable said system to establish a connection to a station identified by said transmitted identification, announcement means supplying a recorded message, means responsive to an answer signal over said established connection for connecting said announcement means over said established connection to said identified station and for removing said station signal representation from said memory, timing means responsive to the transmission of said station identification to said switching system for timing a predetermined interval including means generating an output signal upon the expiration of said predetermined interval, first indicating means activated in response to said output signal for supplying said attendant station with said station identifying signal and an indication of a failure to complete a call to said identified station including means for removing said station signal representation from said memory, and means responsive to an answer signal over said established connection for inhibiting the activation of said indicating means.

Claim 8

The arrangement of claim 5 wherein said announcement means includes means generating a message signal at the termination of said recorded message, said arrangement further comprising means responsive to said message signal for activating said control means to transmit the identification of another station from said memory to said switching system.

Claim 9

The arrangement of claim 5 further comprising means responsive to said output signal for activating said control means to transmit the identification of another station from said memory to said switching system.

Claim 10

The arrangement of claim 7 further comprising means responsive to said predetermined signal from said attendant station for deactivating said firsT indicating means.

Claim 11

The arrangement of claim 8 further comprising second indicating means activated in response to said output signal while said first indicating means is activated for supplying said attendant station with an indication of a failure to complete a call to said another station.

Claim 12

The arrangement of claim 9 further comprising means responsive to said predetermined signal from said attendant station while said second indicating means is activated for deactivating both said first and said second indicating means and for then reactivating said first indicating means to supply said attendant station with said another station identifying signal.

Claim 13

An arrangement connected to a telephone branch switching system for providing message delivery service to stations of said switching system comprising a memory, input means activated in response to a predetermined signal from a system attendant station for receiving signals identifying stations of said switching system from said attendant station and for registering representations of said received signal in said memory, control means activated in response to the registration of a station signal representation in said memory for transmitting an identification of said station from said memory to said switching system to enable said system to establish a connection to a station identified by said transmitted identification, announcement means supplying a recorded message, means responsive to an answer signal over said established connection for connecting said announcement means over said established connection to said identified station and for removing said station signal representation from said memory, and means responsive to a different predetermined signal from said attendant station for removing from said memory the most recently received station signal representation.

Claim 14

An arrangement connected to a telephone branch switching system for providing message delivery service to stations of said switching system comprising a memory, input means activated in response to a predetermined signal from a system attendant station for receiving signals identifying stations of said switching system from said attendant station and for registering representations of said received signal in said memory, control means activated in response to the registration of a station signal representation in said memory for transmitting an identification of said station from said memory to said switching system to enable said system to establish a connection to a station identified by said transmitted identification, announcement means supplying a recorded message, means responsive to an answer signal over said established connection for connecting said announcement means over said established connection to said identified station and for removing said station signal representation from said memory, and means responsive to a different predetermined signal from said attendant station for removing from said memory the most recently received station signal representation.

Claim 15

In a telephone switching system having an attendant station, an arrangement for automatically establishing call connections in sequence to a plurality of called stations comprising a memory, temporary register means for storing identification of a station to be called, means responsive to the receipt of a signal from said attendant station for storing said identification in said temporary register means, means for outpulsing station calling numbers to establish call connections within the switching system, and control means, said control means including a call sequencer for determining the operations of the control means, means under control of said call sequencer for transferring from said temporary register means to said memory identifications of the stations to be called and for storing said identifications in sequence in said memory means, means under control of said call sequencer for causing said outpulser means to outpulse in accordance with stored identifications from said memory, whereby the attendant may rapidly and successively store identifications of stations to be called in said temporary register means while the arrangement is establishing a connection to a station, trouble register means, means responsive to failure of call completion for transferring the identification of the called station from said memory to said trouble register means, means for displaying to the attendant the identity of the station whose identification is stored in said trouble register means, and means for causing said call sequencer to assume a state for reading out the next sequential station identification in said memory.

Claim 16

In a telephone switching system having an attendant station, an arrangement for automatically establishing call connections in sequence to a plurality of called stations comprising a memory, temporary register means for storing identification of a station to be called, means responsive to the receipt of a signal from said attendant station for storing said identification in said temporary register means, means for outpulsing station calling numbers to establish call connections within the switching system, and control means, said control means including a call sequencer for determining the operations of the control means, means under control of said call sequencer for transferring from said temporary register means to said memory identifications of the stations to be called and for storing said identifications in sequence in said memory means, means under control of said call sequencer for causing said outpulser means to outpulse in accordance with stored identifications from said memory, whereby the attendant may rapidly and successively store identifications of stations to be called in said temporary register means while the arrangement is establishing a connection to a station, trouble register means, means responsive to failure of call completion for transferring the identification of the called station from said memory to said trouble register means, means for displaying to the attendant the identity of the station whose identification is stored in said trouble register means, and means for causing said call sequencer to assume a state for reading out the next sequential station identification in said memory.

Claim 17

In a telephone switching system having an attendant station, an arrangement for automatically establishing call connections in sequence to a plurality of called stations comprising a memory, temporary register means for storing identification of a station to be called, means responsive to the receipt of a signal from said attendant station for storing said identification in said temporary register means, mEans for outpulsing station calling numbers to establish call connections within the switching system, and control means, said control means including a call sequencer for determining the operations of the control means, means under control of said call sequencer for transferring from said temporary register means to said memory identifications of the stations to be called and for storing said identifications in sequence in said memory means, and means under control of said call sequencer for causing said outpulser means to outpulse said stored identifications from said memory, whereby the attendant may rapidly and successively store identifications of stations to be called in said temporary register means while the arrangement is establishing a connection to a station, said memory comprising a plurality of flip-flop shift registers arranged in an array and means for automatically transferring stored identifications towards the shift register positions at one end of said array.

Claim 18

In a telephone switching system having an attendant station, an arrangement for automatically establishing call connections in sequence to a plurality of called stations comprising a memory, temporary register means for storing identification of a station to be called, means responsive to the receipt of a signal from said attendant station for storing said identification in said temporary register means, mEans for outpulsing station calling numbers to establish call connections within the switching system, and control means, said control means including a call sequencer for determining the operations of the control means, means under control of said call sequencer for transferring from said temporary register means to said memory identifications of the stations to be called and for storing said identifications in sequence in said memory means, and means under control of said call sequencer for causing said outpulser means to outpulse said stored identifications from said memory, whereby the attendant may rapidly and successively store identifications of stations to be called in said temporary register means while the arrangement is establishing a connection to a station, said memory comprising a plurality of flip-flop shift registers arranged in an array and means for automatically transferring stored identifications towards the shift register positions at one end of said array.

Claim 19

An arrangement in accordance with claim 13 wherein said means for transferring from said temporary register means to said memory includes means for entering the called station identification in the vacant shift register position closest to said one end of said array.

Claim 20

An applique system for a telephone branch switching system for allowing an attendant to originate rapidly a series of message delivery calls without waiting for completion of the calls by the telephone branch switching system, the applique system comprising a memory including a plurality of shift register elements arranged in at least one array, means responsive to the receipt of station number signals from the attendant for sequentially registering representations of said signals in certain of said shift register elements for a plurality of called stations, means responsive to the registering of said representations of said signals for automatically reading out from said memory said representations to allow the establishment of call connections by the telephone branch switching system to each of said plurality of called stations in the order in which said signals were received from the attendant, and sequence control means for controlling said registering means and said readout means whereby said representations are sequentially registered in said memory for one called station as the representations for a prior called station are being read from said memory.

Claim 21

An applique system for a telephone branch switching system for allowing an attendant to originate rapidly a series of message delivery calls without waiting for completion of the calls by the telephone branch switching system, the applique system comprising a memory including a plurality of shift register elements arranged in at least one array, means responsive to the receipt of station number signals from the attendant for sequentially registering representations of said signals in certain of said shift register elements for a plurality of called stations, means responsive to the registering of said representations of said signals for automatically reading out from said memory said representations to allow the establishment of call connections by the telephone branch switching system to each of said plurality of called stations in the order in which said signals were received from the attendant, and sequence control means for controlling said registering means and said readout means whereby said representations are sequentially registered in said memory for one called station as the representations for a prior called station are being read from said memory.

Claim 22

An applique system in accordance with claim 15 further comprising up/down counter means for controlling said registering means to store a new representation in the vacant shift register elements closest to the one end of said shift register array at which said representations are read out.