US3483551A - Electrical circuitry - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 9, 1969 J. H. vAN DEN HENDE ELECTRICAL CIRCUITRY 4 Sheets-Shee't 1 Filed April 26, 1966 IN VENTOR. OHNNES HE/R/CUS VAN DE N HENDE BY WWW QJNW ATTORNEY Dec. 9, 1969 J. H. VAN DEN HENDE 3,483,551

ELECTRICAL CIRCUITRY Filed April 26, 1966 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 PUNCH DIG/TAL RED OUT L L TRNS/STORS T/ 2/V/3 7 9 ALL D/ODES I/V458 P/CK UP HUB INVENTOR. JOHANNES HENR/CUS VAN DEN HENDE TTOR/VEY Dec. 9, 1969 Filed April 26, 1966 J. H. VAN DEN HENDE: 3,483,551

ELECTRICAL CIRCUITRY 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Q (X) W N (0 08 U) "3 K g k CL I INVENTOR.

JOHNNES HE/VR/CUS VAN DEN HENDE A7' TORNE Y United States Patent O 3,4s3,ss1 ELECTRICAL CIRCUITRY Johannes Henricus van den Hende, Pomona, N.Y., as-

signor to American Cyanamid Company, Stamford, Conn., a corporation of Maine Filed Apr. 26, 1966, Ser. No. 545,477 Int. Cl. GOId 9/00; H04l 3/00; H03k 13/00 U.S. Cl. 346-33 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A combination of a card punch or card marking machine which marks on columns in accordance with the numerical value of the digit falling in the particular column, the card punch machine having a stepping switch and a programming card with a device which transforms data, such as, for example, binary data from an X-ray diffraction machine, into an electrical path for the digit in each column, the device being provided with electrical circuits, such as for relays, for connecting one of ten wires and relays for clearing when a particular digital mark has been made in a particular column, these clearing relays being actuated successively by the stepping switch of the card punch machine without requiring a separate stepping switch. The switch thus performs the dual function of moving a card to a position for the next column and of clearing the paths after a digit has been punched. There is also provided a binary readout and a two-position switch, one position starting operation and in this position rnaintaining lit lamps representing the binary number corresponding to its digit, and in the second position effecting card punch, movement of the card by its stepping switch, and clearing.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 'Card marking machines, such as card punching machines are common -devices which punch or otherwise mark cards in columns, the punch or mark being arranged in the column at a position corresponding to one of the digits. The machines are provided with a stepping switch which successively moves the card to bring columns into alignment with ten digit punches and 2 sign punches and It is common also to have these machines provided with a programmer, such as for example a punched card wrapped around a drum in order to program the particular sets of columns on a card which are to be punched to give data on one or more particular subjects.

When such a card punching machine is to be used to mark or punch cards from coded signals, for example binary coded signals from an X-ray diffraction goniometer and scintillation counter, it has been necessary in the past to provide binary to digital encoders and decoders in decades and a separate sequential or stepping switch to feed the digital signal for each digit to the marking punch for each column. This has required two stepping switches, that is to say the stepping switch which is an inherent part of the card punching machine and a second stepping switch. VNot only does this require two stepping switch elements, but the second one is far more fragile and easily deranged than the stepping switch of the card punching machine itself, which latter is a very rugged instrument requiring little or no maintenance for months or years at a time. On the other hand, the second stepping switch which pcks the particular decoder decade and sends a signal to the proper punch hammer is often neither rugged nor does it have a long life without adjustment. In a common type of setup as describe-d, this second stepping switch has to be returned 'for adjustment or rebuilding at very short intervals, such as for example about two Weeks. This has required carrying spare Switches or the expen- 3,483,551 Patented Dec. 9, 1969 sive Servicing at short intervals by the service crew of the company from whom the card punch is bought or leased, and even after this exensive procedure it is still possible for the delicate second stepping switch to get out of order in the periods between Servicing. The result has been a costly setup with reliability of operation which is far from ideal.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention completely eliminates the delicate, and, for this particular purpose, only marginally reliable second stepping switch, using the rugged reliable stepping switch of the card punch to control both the card punch machine itself and the selection and transmission of signals from the particular decades of the digital decoder. Greatly increase-d reliability and lowered cost is obtained, there being required only a small amount of additional electric wiring, using for the most part passive components and reliable relays. At the same time, the advantages are obtained without any sacrifice of speed or convenience. In other words, from the standpoint of operation the present invention is not a compromise but operates with the same speed and efficiency and enhanced reliability as the known combination requiring a larger number of moving elements, one of which is very fragile and short lived.

In its broadest aspect the present invention includes the combination of any digitalized data recorder whether by punched or marked card, magnetic or other record with a source of digitalized signal for recording quantitatively the particular event or events, regardless of whether the event originally produced a signal in digitalized form or, as is more often the case, in coded form, such as binary code requiring encoding and decoding to transfer the binary signal into a digitalized signal. By far the greatest field of utility of the presen't invention is with card punching machines receiving digitalized information from binary co-ded signals, such as from X-ray diffraction measurements of crystals, and this will be described as a typical illustration of the present invention, it being understoood however, that in its broadest aspects the invention is not limited to this particular illustartion. However, the illustrated field is of great practical importance, and so in a more specific aspect of the invention is included.

It will be noted from the more specific description to follow that the present invention uses, for the most part, standard pieces of equipment which are connected together in a particular way with modified electrical connections to perform the new and improved result. The fact that a wide range of standard mechanisms can be employed in the combination of the present invention is an advantage, as it requires the design and Construction of a minimum of elements, such as circuitry, to perform the new and improved results. As with a great many systems involving electrical and electronic operations, the various components, or sub-systems, are usually connected by suitable wiring, which can be of the plug-in type. This s of course an advantage as it makes a particular invention quite flexible since a single sub-system, for example a card punching machine, may be combined at various purposes. Once plugged together, of course, the whole combination of the invention operates as a unitary whole.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FlG. 1 is a front elevation, partly broken away, of a typical IBM card punching machine Model No. 526. As the present invention does not change the internal Construction and wiring of the machine, only such portions are shown as are needed to comprehend the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a dagram of the combination of a card punch with an X-ray goniometer and scintillation counter;

FIG. 3 is a schematic of one decade of a bnary to digital decoder, and

FIG. 4 is a simplified electrical flow sheet of a decoder of FIG. 3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows a conventional IBM card punch machine at 30 with a card at 33 and a programmer in the form of a punched card around a drum 34. The machine is provided with a conventional keyboard 32 which is not used during the actual operation of the combination of the present invention but is available for preparing program cards and other uses. A cable 35 leads from the card punch machine to a decoder decade 48 (FIG. 2), and provides two pathways, one to the decoder and the second, as is shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, from the decoder to the card punch machine. These cables are customarily of the plug-in type and have a large number of wires, only some of which are necessary to the understanding of the operation of the invention being shown in FIG. 3. As will be apparent from FIG. 2, functionally the cable 35 is in two parts and it may also be physically two separate cables. However, in standard IBM card punching machines, plug-in sockets for a single combined cable are available and ithis is symbolically illustrated in FIG. l.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of the combination of V as a General Electric XRD-6 X-ray diifractorneter, may Y be used. The crystal can be mounted so that diffraction by different planes may be measured and punched onto cards.

The operation of the spectrogoniometer is conventional and is not changed by the present invention. A diffracted beam from the crystal passes into a conventional scintillation counter 26 provided with a scintillating crystal 27 and a photomultiplier tube 28 with its custoxnary amplifier. Filters can be introduced into the incident or dilfraoted beam -to modify the band width of the X-ray Spectrum which is used for the actual diifraction measurement. In the illustrated example, two so-called balanced filters are used sequentially. The output from the photomultiplier tube is in ythe form of pulses which are in a bnary code setting out the intensity of radiation at the various settings. As this is a conventional device, it is not illustrated and is shown in diagrammatic form only. A two-way switch 29 of standard design, which makes certain connections when pressed in and through another switching mechanism, others when released, passes the pulses into a bnary to digital decoder 48 Varranged in decades, for example in six decades which is a common number to use for digital representation of the X-ray diffraction intensity. The decoder 48 is connected to the card punching machine 30 through the cable 35.

In the diagrammatic flow representation in FIG. 2 I

it is shown that the connecting cable has both conductors which pass signal from the card punch machine 30 and conductors which pass signal from the decoder `48 to the card punch machine. As has been described above in connection with FIG. l, this cable is usually physically a single cable with a large number of conductors.

In lactual operation, just described, it is customary to record on a punched card the digitalized intensity of diffracted X-ray beam at a particular crystal position and also, in another set of columns on the card, a similar digitalized reading of spurious signal caused by backgroundradiation into the scintillation counter and other sources of noise. This is eifected by first taking a measurement of the diifracted beam with one filter 25 being inserted. Then, after the card to be punched has been moved to the other columns selected by operation of the programmer 34, a second filter is introduced and the background and other spurious signal read and recorded in the proper places on the card. After the records are made on the card, together with anything else which is recorded on it as a result of instructions from the programmer, for example date or any other data which may be desired, such as the presence of attenuators the card is dropped into a hopper in the conventional manner by the card punching machine. The crystal is then turned 'to another predetermined position and another card records the signal intensities for this position. The number of cards depends on the nature of crystal and the number of diffraction readings which are necessary. Each card punching is initiated by the switch 29, and for simplicity only a single signal decoding and punch will be described in connection with FIG. 3. The same operations are of course repeated for the second record on the card and to start a new card. It will be obvious of course that the two records can be interchanged, that is the background or noise reading could be first recorded and then the diffraction reading, but for normal operation the sequence referred to above is ordinarily preferred.

FIG. 3 illustrates one decoder decade. The encoder uses circuits of more or less standard design but there are some modications to perform the results of the present invention. Each decade is provided with four relays 10, 20, 40 and 80. This is in the usual bnary form where the four relays are capable of rerpesenting ten different values. Each relay is provided with a solenoid and varying numbers of contacts. For simplicity the particular elements will bear two digit reference numerals, the first one representing the particular relay. T hus relay 10 has a solenoid 17, relay 20 a solenoid 27, relay 40 a solenoid 47 and relay a solenoid 87.

Each relay has a first contact 11, 21, 41 and 81 respectively which is a visual readout contact as will be described in more detail in a later part of the specification. The solenoids are each provided with two coils 36 and 37 respectively, and a capacitor 38 and resistor 39 to provide a suitable time constant. The elements are numbered only for relay 10, the numbers on corresponding elements in the other relays not being repeated in order to avoid confusion of the drawing. All the resistors 39 are connected to a +28 volt bus 3. The other ends of the coils 36 and 37 in each solenoid are connected to a minus DC bus 57 which passes through a clearing relay 5, the function of which will be described at a later point. The coil 36 in each solenoid is shunted by a diode 56.

The second contacts of each relay, i.e., 12, 22, 42 and 82, are looking contacts, and when the relay is actuated they connect the bus 3 to one end of the coils 37 thus holding ehe relay in locked condition until the whole decade is cleared by actuation of the clearing relay 5.

The third contacts are double throw contacts, and for the four relays these are numbered 13, 23, 43 and 33 respectively. The first relay 10 has only three contacts but the second relay has a fourth contact 24; the relay 40 has additional contacts 44, 45 and 46, and the relay 80 again has four contacts, the last one to the right being 84. These contacts are all double throw, as has been referred to in connection with contact 13.

The bnary signals from the photomultiplier tube 28 have four digits for each decade in accordance with conventional bnary notation. When a reading is started, the switch 29 is depressedy which connects bnary inputs to relays 10, 20, 40 and 80 in FIG. 3, as is indicated by the arrow on the drawing. As is usual in bnary notation,

there is either an input or no input for any particular relay in any particular decade. On FIG. 3 these are shown as applied to diodes 51, 52, S4 and 58 for the four relays respectvely. The diodes feed the base of transistors 61, 62, 64 and y68. All of the transistors have emitters 53 and collectors 55. The emitters are connected together by a bus 7 and the collectors connect to one end of the coils 36 on each of the respective relay solenoids. The bus 7 of each relay is connected to the other bus 7 so that all of the emitters 53 in the relays of all of the decades are in parallel. Depressing switch 29 not only connects binary input signals to the relays in each decade in accordance with the binary number representing the signal output but also through a relay 9 connect the busses 7 of all of the decades to a suitable source of positive DC. This is marked on FIG. 3 by the abbreviation of logic pull-in because each decade represents a logic circuit which transforms binary to the corresponding digital output.

When the start button 29 is depressed, all of the emitters 53 are connected and wherever there is a binary input signal there will be a pulse on the base of the transistor corresponding to the particular relay in each decade. Let us assume the operation of relay 10 in FIG.

3 on the assumption that there is a binary input to the diode 51. This will cause a pulse through the transistor 61 and coil 36 which is rendered uni-directional by the diode 56. As a result, the contacts of relay 10 are all pulled to the left and contact 12 now connects coil 37 to the bus 57 and current continues to flow even after the pulse through transistor 61 has ceased. In other words, the relay is locked or latched. Precisely the same operation takes, place in relays 20, 40 and 80 provided that they have a binary input pulse. Any of them which do not of course are not activated.

When a particular relay is actuated this determines the connection of one or more of its contacts to contacts on another relay. It will be seen that when a relay is not actuated, i.e., the contacts are in the right hand position, each contact is connected to the corresponding contacts of the other relays. In other words, contact 13 of relay 10 to 23 of relay 20 to 43 of relay 40 and to 83 of relay 80. In a similar manner, when not activated to its transfer position contact 24 of relay 20 is connected to contact 44 of relay 40 and it in turn to contact 84 of relay 80. FIG. 4 is a Simplified pathway diagram with each contact being labelled N or T for normal or transferred position. Let us assume that the decade represented in FIG. 1 had received a binary input from the binary number 1001, which in decimal notation corresponds to 9. Turning to FIG. 2 we see that relay 10 has been thrown into the transfer position and so connected from contact 13 of relay 10 to contact 24 of relay 20, which latter is not activated and so connects on to contact 44 of relay 40, which is also not activated and connects to contact 84 of relay 80. The last one, however, is transferred and this therefore leads to the output wire labelled 9, which is one of the wires in the cable 35. This can be seen either in FIG. 4 or by tracing through FIG. 3. It should be noted that in both FIGS. 4 and 3 the relays are arranged from left to right whereas in a binary number it is from right to left. One more example will make this clear. Let us assume that the input was the binary n-umber 0100. This means that only relay 40 is activated and so the path of relay 10 is from contact 13 to contact 23 of relay 20, to contact 43 of relay 40, which is activated and connected to the wire labelled 4. Relay 80 is not activated.

When the button of switch 29 is pressed down, all the emitters in all of the relays in all of the decades are connected and wherever there is a binary input for a particular relay in a particular decade, the relay will be thrown to the transfer position, which means that for that particular relay the first contact is thrown. Looking at FIG. 3 let us assume as in the example before that the decade had received a binary numer 1001. This would have thrown relays 10 and to the transfer position but would not have activated relays 20 and 40. Now the first contact, namely contact 11 of relay 10V and contact 81 of relay 80 will be thrown. All of the movable elements of each first contact in any particular decades are connected to a volt AC bus 6. In the example above referred to there will be the llS AC going out through the wires marked Bin. R.O. 10 and Bin. R.O. 80. These arrows lead to corresponding lamps in a conventional binary panel, which is not shown as its Construction is in no way changed by the present invention. As far as the first decade is concerned, in this row of four lights the extreme right hand and extreme left hand ones would be lighted. For this particular decade the Operator can then read that the corresponding digit would be 9. As long as the switch 29 is depressed, these lights will show and the Operator can maintain the switch in this position for as long as he needs to Verify the reading visually.

Now let us assume that the Operator having satisfied himself with the number showing in each decade releases the switch. This does two things: First of all it disconnects all the emitters 53 from their source of DC plus. It does not, however, open any of the relays in any of the decades which have been thrown because the second contact of each relay keeps the relay locked through the coil 37. The second thing that is effected by releasing the switch is that a pulse is sent through one wire of the cable 35 into the card punch 31. This pulse starts an automatic cycle. The stepping switch of the key punch moves a card to align the first column which has been selected by the program card 34 into position opposite the ten key punches. It also sends out a pulse through the wire 50 to the first decade encoder shown in FIG. 3. The pathway, as we have seen above, is to Wire 9 in the cable 35, and this connects to the punch located at the elevation corresponding to the digit 9. The punch is activated by its solenoid and punches a hole in the card in the selected column at the level corresponding to the digit 9.

The stepping switch in the card punch machine then moves the next column of the card into line with the punches and sends a pulse through the wire 50 of the second decade. Let us say that this decade had its relays thrown for the digit 0. That is to say, none of the relays were activated. Accordingly, in that decade the signal from the wire 50 would go through contacts 13, 23, 43 to 83 and out through the wire marked 0. This will cause a punch corresponding to the digit 0 to punch. The stepping switch then moves on to the next column, sending a pulse out through another wire corresponding to wire 50 of FIG. 3 to the third decade, and the same sequence follows. It should be noted that while the wires 50 for each decade are separate wires, the wires labelled from 0 to 9 in FIG. 3 are all connected together for the different decades, this causes no short circuiting because only one decade receives a pulse from the card punch at a particular time. In the card punch machine of course all wires go to their corresponding punch solenoids.

FIG. 3 has shown ten digitalized wires. These do not run through the cable 35 but run to a cable socket into which the cable 35 plugs. The interconnection to all the lis, 2`s, 3's, etc., in the different decades of course is to the socket. Each wire 50 to each particular decade, however, goes to a different contact of the socket and through a different wire in the cable 35 so that only one wire 50 receives a pulse from the card punch machine at any one time.

When the stepping switch in the card punch machine which, as is usual, is repeating, has caused punching of five decades it sends a pulse through a separate wire in the cable 35 which connects to the clearing relays 5 in each decade. This pulse breaks the connection to minus DC and hence causes all of the solenoids which have been activated to spring back to their normal position. In

other words, the decoders are now ready to receive and to pass on to the card punching machine another signal, but this will not occur until the button 29 has been depressed again to start another reading.

In the sequence referred to above where there are two sets of readings, one for diffracted beam plus background radiation and one for background radiation alone when the filter is thrown into the beam in FIG. 2 and the button 29 is pressed again for another punching out of the data corresponding to the background radiation or noise. Card punch machines operate very rapidly and :five punches can take the time of a second or considerably less. This would be too short a time for the operator to read the binary readout lights. This is why the latter are held lit as long as the button 29 is depressed, which can be as long as the operator needs to Verify the numbers as represented by the binary readout lights.

After the second set of five punches the programmer 34, with or without ordering the punching of other program data onto the card, causes the card to move on to be discarded in a suitable hopper and another card moved into position. The programmer now stops and waits for another reading to be initiated by the Operator by pressing the button 29 and then releasing it. When one card has been punched out the operator will then turn the spectrogoniometer to the next point where he wishes to have a diffracted beam measured, presses the button 29, releases it to punch out the six decades on the card, changes the filters 25, again presses the button 29 and releases it, and another card is punched recording the data for the second crystal position.

The particular points at which the goniometer is stopped or set are determined by a preliminary examination of a particular crystal or crystal type, for example, photographically or otherwise, to determine at what particular points ditfraction may be present of sufficient intensity to be significant for measurement purposes. These points of course correspond to particular positions on the spectrogoniometer scale, and it is these positions which have been noted down before a particular set of cards is punched out that are used in determining the points where readings are to be taken.

Theoretically if the background radiation or other noise factors remain constant either for any one set of readings or even for one card or one day, it would not be necessary to record the background reading each time by interposing a filter. On the contrary, a record could be programmed into the program card and punched out on each card as it went through. This speeds up and simplifies the operation but is subject to the possibility of errors Y,

because the background radiation or other noise factors may change, either in a short time or even between different readings for the same crystal on the different parts of the spectrogoniometer. Therefore, it is customary, and the additional time taken is negligible, to record background radiations on each card. In other types of problems, however, double readings on a card may not be necessary and for certain other types of readings more than two may be required. This simply requires the correct number of decades of encoders and a suitable program card for the card punch machine.

It is customary for X-ray diffraction measurements to use five or six decades and this is what has been described above. For certain other measurements, however, a different number of decades may be needed, for example, four, seven, eight or more, and in such cases the number of decades in the binary to digital decoder must correspond. Similarly, there must 'be the correct number of wires 50 coming through the cable 35. If it is desired to set up the present invention for greater flexibility, the number of decades with relays can be set up for the maximum number needed for any observation and only a smaller number connected into the card punch machine where a smaller number is needed. The simplest way of doing this is to have a separate cable for each particular number of decades. The sockets, of course, in the card punch machine and in the encoder should have a sufficient number of contacts for the maximum number of decades which would be used. When smaller numbers are used the cables will have fewer wires and not all the contacts will be utilized. This is one simple way of arranging for the additional flexibility but the invention is not limited thereto and the number of decades to be cut in can be effected by any suitable electrical switching or connecting circuits.

It will be noted that in the operation of the invention as described above the stepping switch of the card punch machine serves a dual purpose. It moves the cards and actuates other circuits in the card punch machine, which it does in any card punch machine, and at the same time it also gives out a signal to each decoder in succession so that the proper decade routes its signal to the proper punch activator. Thus a second and much more fragile and unreliable type of stepping switch is completely eliminated without eliminating its function.

It will be noted that the card punch machine orders digitalized signals at the proper time for punching the cards at the proper places, but of course it does not know the past history of how these digital signals were set up and stored to be released on command from the card punch stepping switch. It has already been stated that the binary numbers may be from someother type of measurement than X-ray diffraction. In such a case the decades as shown in FIG. 3 may be of the same design. However, as far as the basic combination of the present invention is concerned, namely the use of the stepping switch in the card punch machine both for its normal function and to command proper digital signals at the proper time to be applied to the proper punches, will operate if for example the measurement produecs a signal which is already in digital form. This has to be stored temporarily, which can be done by other conventional circuits, but it is not necessary to change from binary to digital. Therefore, some of the circuitry shown in FIG. 3 is omitted. It is also possible to have signals which are coded in a code other than binary, for instance a code based on three instead of two. This would require a different circuit and construction of decoder, but as far as the use of the stepping switch of the card punch machine is concerned, it will still perform it dual function of operating the card punch machine and of giving a command signal to receive digital information. As a matter of practical interest, however, there will hardly ever be a stiuation where signals will be received under conditions other than decimal digitalization or binary form, the latter being by far the most common. That is why the most common and preferred form has been described in detail, but it should be understod that in its broadest aspect the present invention is not limited thereto.

Punched cards are so convenient and so commonly used that this is the preferred form in which the signal readouts are stored. Of course it is equally possible to mark the cards without actually punching a hole. In such a case instead of punches there will be marking bars. In the claims the generic term marks will be used to indicate the numerical value of the digit in the particular column. Other forms of recording digitalized information such as magnetic tape, paper tape, etc., may be used and still retain the advantage of the dual use of a stepping switch in the final data recording device. The use of cards, particularly punched card, however, has so many advantages in practical operation that this constitutes the preferred specific modification of the present invention.

I claim:

1. A system for recording digital data from a source on a recording medium in terms of digit position as a column or zone and encoding thereon a quantity corresponding to digit value, comprising in combination:

(a) means for moving a recording medium to locate a strip or zone thereof,

atsaesl (b) electrically actuated means for recording a mark on said zone proportional to the numerical value of the digit, the position of the zone corresponding to digt position,

(c) said means for moving recording medium including an electrical sequence switch,

(d) means for producing an electrically conductive path from the digital data source for each digt each electrical path leading to the mark recording means on said zone or strip, said recording means, on signal through said connection, being capable of recording on said zone a mark corresponding to digital value,

`(e) means actuated by the sequence switch for causing a flow of current through the path in the digitalized signal generating means corresponding to the digt having the position corresponding to the zone or strip whereby a mark corresponding to the digt value is recorded on said zone,

(f) said sequence switch sequentially moving recording medium into position for successive zones or strips and causing electric current to flow successively through the particular electrically conductive path corresponding to the digit for zone position, whereby a series of zones corresponding to digit positions have recorded thereon marks corresponding to each digit in succession.

2. A device according to claim 1 in which the means for moving the recording medium is a card making means, the sequence switch moves successive columns or zones of -the card into position and the means for recording a quantity proportional to the digt value are marking means positioned at different points on said column or strip.

3. A system according to claim 2 in which the marking is a card punching means with a sequence switch moving successive columns or zones of the card into position under a vertical array of punches, each punch being connected to the conducting path for a particular digit and being actuatable by current flowing therein and means controlled by the sequence switch for causing a flow of current successively through conducting paths for each digit in synchronism with location of columns or strips of the card corresponding to position to the position of said digit.

4. A system according to claim 3 in which the means for producing digitalzed information is a multiple decade binary to decimal digital decorder, each decoder corresponding to a particular digt position and each decoder having means actuated by said binary information producing an electrically conducting path uniquely corresponding to the binary code representing each digit.

5. A system according to claim 4 in which each decoder decade comprises four relays of the locking type, each relay having an input circuit for a particular binary digt position, the relays having multiple contacts and ten output paths, the contacts forming paths to individ- 10 ual, separate output wires in accordance with the digital code representing the value of the binary inputs, each decoder decade having an input circuit connected to the sequence switch and to the end of the conducting path to the digt wire, the sequence switch connecting an electrical signal successively to the input circuits of each decade as columns on the card are moved into position whereby signals in the form of binary pulses are translated into digital information.

6. A system according to claim S in which the data source consists in X-ray crystal ditfraction beams and means are provided for transforming said beams into radiation pulses, and means are provided for transforming these radiation pulses into binary form for input into the decoder decades.

'7. A system according to claim 6 comprising a two position switching mechanism which, in one position, connects a binary signal to the decade relay inputs and in thel opposite position initiates sequential operation of the card punching mechanism.

8..A system according to claim 7 comprising binary' readout actuated from binary inputs through the relays of each decade on actuation of the switching mechanism in the first position.

9. A system according to claim 8 in which the decade relays are connected to the binary inputs through diodes and transistors whereby a pulse through the transistor actuates a relay and locking coils on each relay connected by-one contact of the relay.

10. A system according to claim 7 in which the decade relays are connected to the binary inputs through diodes and transistors Whereby a pulse through the transistor actuates a relay and locking coils on each relay connected by one contact of the relay.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,158,429 11/1964 Kohler 346-52 3,197,638 7/1965 Sinclair 250-515 3,39l,276 7/1968 Delarue 250-515 OTHER REFERENCES Cole, Okaya and Cham'bers: Computer-Controlled Diifractometerg Review of Scientific Instruments, vol. 34, p. 872, August 1963.

Toifer and Hatch: New Design of a Completely Automated High Precision Curved Crystal Spectrometer, AEC Document TID-4500, Oct. 1, 1963, Ames Laboratory at the Iowa State University.

MAYNARD R. WILBUR, Primary Examiner JEREMIAH GLASSMAN, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 250-515; 340-347

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