Current regulators

Claim 1

A CURRENT REGULATING CIRUIT COMPRISING IN COMBINATION A PAIR OF INPUT TERMINALS, A DIRECT CURRENT SOURCE CONNECTED ACROSS SAID INPUT TERMINALS, A PAIR OF OUTPUT TERMINALS, A LOAD CONNECTED ACROSS SAID OUTPUT TERMINALS, AND A CURRENT REGULATOR INTER-CONNECTING SAID INPUT AND OUTPUT TERMINALS, SAID CURRENT REGULATOR COMPRISING IN COMBINATION MEANS FOR OBTAINING A VOLTAGE DEPENDENT ON THE CURRENT FLOWING BETWEEN SAID INPUT AND OUTPUT TERMINALS, A FIRST CAPACITOR TO WHICH SAID VOLTAGE IS APPLIED, A ZENER DIODE, MEANS CONNECTING SAID ZENER DIODE TO SAID INPUT TERMINALS, THE VOLTAGE ACROSS SAID ZENER DIODE PROVIDING A FIXED REFERENCE VOLTAGE WHEN SAID ZENER DIODE CONDUCTS, A TRANSISTOR THE EMITTER AND BASE VOLTAGES OF WHICH ARE DETERMINED BY SAID ZENER DIODE AND SAID FIRST CAPACITOR RESPECTIVELY, A CONTROL SWITCH BETWEEN THE INPUT AND OUTPUT TERMINALS, MEANS WHEREBY SAID CONTROL SWITCH IS OPENED BY CURRENT FLOW THROUGH SAID TRANSISTOR WHEN THE LATTER CONDUCTS AS A RESULT OF THE VOLTAGE ACROSS SAID CAPACITOR EXCEEDING SAID FIXED REFERENCE VOLTAGE BY A PREDETERMINED AMOUNT, A SECOND CAPACITOR CONNECTED ACROSS SAID ZENER DIODE, AND MEANS CONNECTING SAID SECOND CAPACITOR TO SAID INPUT TERMINALS, THE REFERENCE VOLTAGE BEING PROVIDED BY SAID SECOND CAPACITOR WHEN THE CURRENT REGULATOR IS INITIALLY CONNECTED TO SAID DIRECT CURRENT SOURCE, THE VOLTAGE ACROSS SAID SECOND CAPACITOR BUILDING UP TO A VALUE AT WHICH SAID ZENER DIODE CONDUCTS IN A PERIOD OF TIME COMPARABLE WITH THE TIME TAKEN FOR SAID FIRST CAPACITOR TO CHARGE.