Shift register deskewing system

Claim 1

IN A DESKEWING DEVICE FOR A MAGNETIC TAPE RECORDING SYSTEM ADAPTED TO READ A MAGNETIC TAPE HAVING THE BITS CONSTITUTING THE DATA AND SYNCHRONIZING SIGNALS DISPOSED THEREON IN A PLURALITY OF PARALLEL TRACKS, THE COMBINATION COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF SETS OF DATA STORAGE REGISTERS, EACH SET INCLUDING A PLURALITY OF SHIFT REGISTERS CORRESPONDING TO AND ASSOCIATED WITH EACH OF SAID PLURALITY OF PARALLEL TRACKS, EACH OF SAID SHIFT REGISTERS HAVING A PLURALITY OF STAGES EQUAL TO THE NUMBER OF BITS OF ANTICIPATED SKEW, A PULSE GENERATOR HAVING ITS OUTPUT CONNECTED TO A PREDETERMINED POSITION OF EACH OF SAID SHIFT REGISTERS, MEANS ACTUATING SAID PULSE GENERATOR BY A TIMING SIGNAL FROM A SOURCE INDEPENDENT OF SAID SYNCHRONIZING SIGNALS ON SAID MAGNETIC TAPE TO INSERT A PRIME SIGNAL IN SAID PREDETERMINED POSITION OF EACH OF SAID SHIFT REGISTERS PRIOR TO READIN OF DATA, CONTROL MEANS FOR INITIATING READIN OF DATA TO THE SHIFT REGISTERS IN ONE OF SAID SETS, MEANS FOR SHIFTING SAID PRIME AND DATA SIGNALS THROUGH SAID SHIFT REGISTERS BY APPLYING A SEQUENCE OF SHIFT PULSES THERETO, MEANS FOR SENSING WHEN SAID PRIME SIGNAL IS SHIFTED THROUGH SAID ASSOCIATED SHIFT REGISTER, MEANS RESPONSIVE TO SAID SENSING MEANS FOR SELECTIVELY SWITCHING FROM EACH SHIFT REGISTER TO THE ALTERNATE SHIFT REGISTER IN SAID SET, AND MEANS RESPONSIVE TO A FULL SET STORAGE REGISTER INDICATION FOR INITIATING READOUT OF THE MESSAGE STORED THEREIN, SAID FULL SET STORAGE INDICATION BEING PROVIDED BY READ-OUT OF THE PRIME SIGNALS ASSOCIATED WITH EACH TRACK.