Telephone-system monitoring and recordal apparatus using ordinary paper

Claim 1

A telephone-system monitoring and recordal apparatus for a multiplicity of subscriber lines connectable selectively through at least one exchange with called-subscriber lines upon the dialing of the called-subscriber line by a calling-subscriber line, said apparatus comprising: A. a plurality of primary connection circuits connected to respective groups of subscriber lines; B. respective secondary connection circuits, each connected to one of said primary connection circuits and including: B1. a line selection and connection responsive to a first instruction signal for selective connection to one of the subscriber lines of an associated primary connection circuit and for transmitting a first information signal relating to the identity of a selected subscriber line of the associated group, B2. a special-observation circuit responsive to the activation of one of the subscriber lines of the group of the associated primary connection circuit for transmitting a second information signal relating to a prior instruction for observation of the activated subscriber line, and B3. a line-priority circuit responsive to the activation of one of the subscriber lines of the group of the associated primary connection circuit and energizable by a second instruction signal for facilitating connection of the activated subscriber line in accordance with its priority among the lines of the respective group; C. a group selection circuit connected to all of said secondary connection circuits and responsive to said information signals for transmitting said Instruction signals to said line selection and connection circuits and to said line-priority circuits respectively; D. an automaton connected to said group selection circuit and including: D1. a subscriber-category monitoring circuit connected to said group selection circuit and responsive to a signal therefrom triggered by said information signals for identifying the category of an activated subscriber line, for producing a first data signal representing the identified category, and for transmitting a signal to said group selection circuit for initiating the transmission of said instruction signals thereby, D2. a dialing-pulse register receiving dialing pulses from an activated subscriber line connected to said automaton in response to said initiating signal produced by said subscriber-monitoring circuit, upon the dialing by the activated subscriber line of the called-subscriber line, D3. a called-line register connected to said dialing-pulse register for producing a second data signal representing ciphers of the called-subscriber line, D4. a charge-pulse generator responsive to said group selection circuit for monitoring the duration of a call subsequent to connection of an activated subscriber line to a calledsubscriber line through said exchange and generating a third data signal representing a toll charge, and D5. a printing circuit including: D5a. an electromagnetically activatable time-printing device having alpha numeric characters representing the instantaneous data, hour, minute and second, D5b. an electromagnetically activatable charge-printing device operated by said third data signal and bearing ciphers representing a toll charge, D5c. an electromagnetically activatable called-number printing device bearing ciphers representing the called-subscriber line and operated by said second data signal, and D5d. a further printing device connected to said subscribercategory monitoring circuit and responsive to said first data signal for registering indicia representing the group of subscriber lines from which an activated subscriber line is selected and the identifying number of the activated subscriber line; and D6. control means for operating at least some of said printing devices at least upon connection of the activated subscriber line to a called-subscriber line and again upon disconnection of said activated subscriber line from said called-subscriber line to print the information registered by said devices on a sheet of paper.