Frequency responsive apparatus

Claim 1

ELECTRICAL APPARATUS COMPRISING, A SOURCE OF A REFERENCE SIGNAL, A BINARY RATE MULTIPLIER HAVING A RATE INPUT, AN OUTPUT DELIVERING AN OUTPUT SIGNAL HAVING A CONTROLLABLE RATE, AND RATE CONTROL LEADS FOR RECEIVING ELECTRICAL SIGNALS IN PARALLEL BINARY NOTATION EFFECTIVE IN CAUSING THE RATE OF A SIGNAL APPLIED TO SAID RATE INPUT TO BE ALTERED IN FREQUENCY BY A FACTOR RELATED TO THE DIGITAL NUMBER REPRESENTED IN PARALLEL BINARY NOTATION, MEANS FOR APPLYING SAID REFERENCE SIGNAL TO SAID RATE INPUT, A REVERSIBLE COUNTER FOR STORING A DIGITAL NUMBER REPRESENTATIVE OF THE RATIO BETWEEN THE REFERENCE SIGNAL RATE AND THE INPUT SIGNAL RATE AND DELIVERING SIGNALS IN PARALLEL BINARY NOTATION CHARACTERISTIC THEREOF TO SAID RATE CONTROL LEADS, SAID COUNTER HAVING FORWARD AND BACKWARD LINES FOR RECEIVING ENABLING POTENTIALS CAUSING THE COUNT STORED THEREIN TO BE ADVANCED AND RETARDED RESPECTIVELY WHEN SAID COUNTER IS ENERGIZED BY COUNT SIGNALS, MEANS FOR COMBINING SAID INPUT AND OUTPUT SIGNALS TO PROVIDE A FIRST SIGNAL HAVING A RATE EQUAL TO THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RATES OF SAID INPUT AND OUTPUT SIGNALS AND DIRECTIONAL CONTROL SIGNALS FOR ENABLING SAID FORWARD AND BACKWARD LINES WHEN SAID INPUT SIGNAL RATE IS RESPECTIVELY GREATER THAN AND LESS THAN SAID OUTPUT SIGNAL RATE, A FREQUENCY DIVIDER RESPONSIVE TO SAID REFERENCE SIGNAL FOR PROVIDING A SECOND SIGNAL HAVING A RATE LESS THAN SAID REFERENCE SIGNAL RATE DIVIDED BY THE NUMBER OF DIGITS IN SAID STORED DIGITAL NUMBER, MEANS FOR COMBINING SAID FIRST AND SECOND SIGNALS TO PROVIDE SAID COUNT SIGNAL HAVING A RATE EQUAL TO THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE RATES OF SAID FIRST AND SECOND SIGNALS, AND MEANS FOR APPLYING SAID COUNT SIGNAL TO SAID REVERSIBLE COUNTER TO MAINTAIN THE COUNT THEREIN CLOSELY REPRESENTATIVE OF SAID RATIO.