Apparatus for feeding sheet material from the bottom of a stack

Claim 1

A mechanism for cooperatively reading optical information from a stack of document sheets and moving them, comprising: a first surface area including a solid optically transparent plate oriented substantially horizontally and having a defined edge, a movable second surface area with an edge thereof positioned immediately adjacent said defined edge of said transparent plate, said surface also being oriented substantially horizontally as an extension of a top surface of said transparent plate, a substantially vertical structure positioned over said second surface area and aligned substantially parallel to said one edge of said transparent plate, thereby to define a position for holding said stack of sheets with an edge on said second surface area but with most of the area of the sheets being held over the transparent plate, said vertical structure being positioned to provide a small gap between its bottom and said second surface area, whereby a single one of said document sheets may pass therethrough, means positioned under said transparent plate for reading optical information from the bottom of the stack of documents through the transparent plate, said second surface area being movable in a direction away from the transparent plate but at the same time maintaining a continuous document surface outward past said vertical structure from said transparent plate defined edge and, means for controllably moving said movable surface away from said one edge of said transparent plate, whereby a stack of document sheets positioned face down adjacent said vertical wall may be optically read and removed from the bottom of the stack one at a time.