Document feeding apparatus

Claim 1

In an apparatus for feeding a document along a path from an upstream end to a down stream end, the combination comprising: a. a longitudinally extended deck upon which a stack of documents may be placed, said deck having an opening therein; b. means for supporting said deck at an angle relative to the horizontal, the angle being such that documents placed in a stack upon said deck would tend to slide off one another due to gravity; c. document supply means located at the upstream end of said deck for feeding documents thereto; d. means for adjusting the location of said support member on said deck; e. means for adjusting the location where said supply means feeds documents to said deck; f. a support member attached to and extending laterally upon said deck, said support member being in a position to prevent documents from sliding from said deck; g. take-away means located at the downstream end of said deck; and h. a vacuum member received within said opening and positioned to engage the bottommost document of a stack of documents supported by said deck, said vacuum member being operative to convey the bottom-most document in a generally upward direction away from said support member and into engagement with said take-away whereby the friction between the bottom document and the next-to-bottom document is overcome so as to allow the bottom document to be conveyed and the balance of the documents remain in place.