GB826618A - Improvements in or relating to electric pulse generators - Google Patents

Abstract

826,618. Electronic counting apparatus. GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. Ltd., and BEESLEY, J. H. June 28, 1957 [July 3, 1956], No. 20633/56. Class 106 (1). [Also in Group XL (c)] A multi-stable state counting or distributing circuit has a number of input leads and comprises a chain of gas discharge tubes the pulses to be distributed being applied to the input leads in a predetermined sequence in such a way that the pulse applied to any one lead reaches a predetermined amplitude before that on the preceding lead falls below that value so that a tube in the chain conducts in response to an input pulse only if the preceding tube in the chain is then conducting. Fig. 6 shows such a counting circuit which comprises a ring of cold-cathode gas tubes 501 ... 512 the cathode of each of which is connected to the trigger of the succeeding tube in the chain. Staggered trains of input pulses 41 ... 44, Fig. 5 (not shown), are applied respectively to the inputs 11 ... 14. If initially tube 501 for example is conducting tube 502 is primed and fires when an input pulse is applied to its respective input lead 12, tube 501 then being extinguished when the pulse as its input lead 11 ceases. In this way any given tube in the ring fires when a pulse is present at its input lead and the preceding tube in the ring is conducting. Thus the pulses which appear at the gas tube cathodes are of the same duration as those applied to input terminals 11 ... 14 and occupy the same position on an arbitrary time scale as the pulses from which they are derived. Output pulses are thus derived from terminals 515 ... 520 so that the circuit provides six phase-staggered trains of pulses having the same period as the time taken by the ring of tubes to make a complete cycle. The two pulse trains produced at terminals 515 and 519, Fig. 6, may be applied as inputs to a secondary distributer. This distributer shown in Fig. 7 is of the kind described in Specification 768,653 and comprises four gas tube stages 71 ... 74 coupled in a closed ring for sequentially striking one at a time in response to priming voltages which are applied alternately to the two input leads 75, 76. The coupling between adjacent stages in the chain is by way of coincidence gating circuits 712, 723, 734, 741. Thus if for example the gas tube of stage 71 is conducting the priming voltage at its cathode is applied to the gate 712 but is not gated to the trigger of the gas tube of stage 72 until a priming voltage is applied to the input lead 75 as the result of tube 501, Fig. 6, conducting. The gas tubes of stages 71 ... 74 are thus rendered conducting in sequence along the chain, as a result of the priming voltages applied alternately to the leads 75 and 76 from the master distributer, Fig. 6. The secondary distributer thus makes one complete cycle for every two cycles of the master distibuter and phase-displaced pulse trains having an unequal make-break ratio are produced at output leads 701 ... 704. The output terminals 702 and 704 are connected to the input of a tertiary distributer shown in Fig. 8 (not shown) which is also of the kind described in Specification 768,653 but since it comprises six gas tube stages it makes one complete cycle for every three cycles of the secondary distributer. Thus phase-displaced pulse trains having varying time relationships may be generated from the output of a master pulse generator applied to the master distributer (see Group XL (c)). Specification 826,617, [Group XL (c)], also is referred to.