Telephone signaling and testing apparatus with provisions for either pulse or multifrequency dialing

Claim 1

Manually operated telephone signaling and/or testing apparatus comprising: a. a master push-button digit and/or character keyboard whose push-buttons are manually and sequentially activated; b. means responsive to said keyboard for generating a plurality of pulse coded signal sequences, each pulse sequence having a number of pulses corresponding to designated digits and/or characters, and wherein said pulse signal generating means provides N-pulses for a push-button whose numerical value is N, and includes: i. means for providing a single output pulse whenever any pushbutton is selected; ii. a shift register; iii. means for entering a binary digit in said shift register when a push-button is selected, whose numErical value N is greater than 1; iv. clock means for providing pulses upon the selection of a desired digit and/or character to shift down the binary digit entered in said shift register; v. means for disabling said clock means when the initially selected binary digit is shifted down N-1 positions; and vi. means for providing an output pulse each time said shift register is shifted one position; c. means responsive to said keyboard for generating frequencycoded signals corresponding to predetermined designated digits and/or characters; and d. means for selectively connecting said keyboard with either said frequency coded signal generating means or to said pulse generating means.