Retrieval method in reading dictionaries

Claim 1

A machine implemented method of retrieving a desired word from a dictionary comprising: storing the words of the dictionary written in phonetical signs in alphabetical order in groups on a microfilm, each of said groups corresponding to a page in said dictionary, said microfilm being operably mounted in a microfilm display apparatus, designating each group by a numerical address, the numerical address of each group corresponding to the dictionary page number of the page corresponding to the group, designating each group by an imaginary representative word having a phonetical weight greater than that of the last word of the group and less than that of the first word of the next group, said imaginary word containing the minimum number of letters necessary to distinguish it from said last word and said first word, converting each of said imaginary representative words into an electrical code, each of said imaginary representative word codes having a numerical weight corresponding to the phonetical weight of the corresponding imaginary representative word, storing said representative word codes in a machine memory in a numerically increasing order, converting said desired word into an electrical code corresponding to the code of said imaginary representative words, successively comparing the desired word code with each representative word code until the numerical weight of the representative word code becomes greater than the numerical weight of the desired word code, generating an address signal corresponding to the address of the group of words represented by the first imaginary representative word code which has a numerical weight equal to or greater than the numerical weight of the desired word code determined during said successive comparison, and addressing said microfilm display apparatus with said address signal to display the addressed group of words.