Information retrieval system

Claim 1

IN A DATA HANDLING SYSTEM, FILE MEANS FOR SEQUENTIALLY PRODUCING RECORDS OF LIKE FORMAT IN THE FORM OF TIME SEQUENTIAL BITS WHICH ARE GROUPED INTO SUCCESSIVE FIELDS, A DEVICE FOR UTILIZING THE BITS OF ONE OR MORE PARTICULAR, CONSECUTIVE FIELDS WITHIN EACH RECORD PRODUCED BY SAID FILE MEANS, GATING MEANS COUPLED TO SAID FILE MEANS AND TO SAID DEVICE OPERATIVE TO DECONDITIONED AND CONDITIONED STATES FOR BLOCKING AND ADMITTING, RESPECTIVELY, THE PASSAGE OF BITS FROM SAID FILE MEANS TO SAID DEVICE, COMPARING MEANS COUPLED TO SAID FILE MEANS AND TO SAID GATING MEANS OPERATIVE UPON THE RECEIPT FROM SAID FILE MEANS OF A FIRST PREDETERMINED NUMBER OF BITS WITHIN EACH RECORD MEANS FOR CONDITIONING SAID GATING MEANS, COUNTING MEANS COUPLED TO SAID GATING MEANS OPERATIVE UPON THE ADMISSION TO SAID DEVICE OF BITS WHICH REPRESENT THE FIELD OR FIELDS OF EACH RECORD TO BE USED BY SAID DEVICE FOR DECONDITIONING SAID GATING MEANS, AND SETTING APPARATUS INCLUDING FIRST MEANS FOR SELECTABLY MAKING SAID COMPARING MEANS RESPONSIVE TO THE OCCURRENCE OF A FIRST PARTICULAR NUMBER OF FIELDS IN EACH RECORD PRODUCED BY SAID FILE MEANS AND SECOND MEANS FOR SELECTABLY MAKING SAID COUNTING MEANS RESPONSIVE TO THE OCCURRENCE OF A NUMBER OF BITS EQUAL TO THE NUMBER OF BITS WITHIN THE FIELD OR FIELDS TO BE ADMITTED TO SAID DEVICE, WHEREBY ANY FIELD OR CONSECUTIVE FIELDS OF EACH RECORD PRODUCED BY SAID FILE MEANS CAN BE ADMITTED TO SAID DEVICE.