Counting apparatus

Claim 1

AN IMPROVED ELECTRONIC COUNTING DEVICE HAVING A SOURCE OF NEGATIVE PULSATING ELECTRICAL ENERGY WITH A PRESELECTED REFERENCE PULSE FREQUENCY FOR ADDING AND SUBTRACTING DIGITAL INPUTS REPRESENTATIVE OF POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE NUMBERS ACCORDING TO THEIR OPERATING SIGNS AND INDICATING THE RESULTANT TOTAL IN AN ANALOGUE OUTPUT, SAID COUNTING DEVICE COMPRISING: AN INPUT SIDE COMPRISING A FIRST "OR" GATE, A MONOSTABLE MULTI-VIBRATOR, AN "AND" GATE, A FLIP-FLOP FREQUENCY DIVIDER CIRCUIT AND A SECOND "OR" GATE CONNECTED IN SERIES IN THE STATED ORDER, CIRCUIT MEANS FOR SUPPLYING FROM SAID SOURCE OF NEGATIVE PULSATING ELECTRICAL ENERGY SAID REFERENCE PULSE FREQUENCY CONTINUOUS TO SAID "AND" GATE; CIRCUIT MEANS SUPPLYING FROM SAID SOURCE REFERENCE PULSE FREQUENCY A NUMBER OF RESPECTIVE NEGATIVE PULSES REPRESENTATIVE OF RESPECTIVE NUMBERS AND THEIR OPERATING SIGNS TO BE ALGEBRICALLY ADDED, SAID PULSES BEING REPRESENTATIVE OF NUMBERS HAVING MINUS OPERATING SIGNS AND PLUS OPERATING SIGNS, MEANS FOR APPLYING SAID NEGATIVE PULSES FOR BOTH NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE NUMBERS RESPECTIVELY COMPRISING LEADS FOR APPLYING TO SAID FIRST "OR" GATE THROUGH SEPARATE LEADS AND SAID PULSES REPRESENTING NEGATIVE NUMBERS TO SAID SECOND "OR" GATE TO DECREASE SAID CONTINUOUS REFERENCE FREQUENCY FOR EVERY NEGATIVE PULSE CORRESPONDING TO A POSITIVE NUMBER PULSE AND INCREASE SAID REFERENCE FREQUENCY FOR EVERY PULSE REPRESENTATIVE OF NEGATIVE NUMBER, AND AN OUTPUT SIDE COMPRISING FLIP-FLOP CIRCUIT FREQUENCY DIVIDER MEANS COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF FREQUENCY DIVIDER STAGES FOR MODULATING THE PRESELECTED REFERENCE PULSE FREQUENCY BY HALF IN EACH OF SAID CASCADED PLURALITY OF FREQUENCY DIVIDER STAGES AND FOR SIMILARLY MODULATING THE FREQUENCY OF THE COMBINED NUMBER PULSES AND SAID REFERENCE FREQUENCY PULSES IN THE SAME NUMBER OF FREQUENCY DIVIDER STAGES; MEANS FOR COMPARING AND MEASURING THE DIFFERENCE IN PHASE LAG AND LEAD BETWEEN SAID FREQUENCY DIVIDED REFERENCE PULSES AND COMBINED REFERENCE AND NUMBER PULSES, AND SAID DIFFERENCE BEING THE ALGEBRAIC SUM OF SAID POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE NUMBERS.