Coordination of telephone and remote control transmission over a common communication channel

Claim 1

A DUAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEM EXTENDING BETWEEN A CONTROL OFFICE LOCATION AND A PLURALITY OF REMOTE STATION LOCATIONS CONNECTED BY A COMMUNICTION CHANNEL, COMPRISING, (A) A PLURALITY OF CARRIER CURRENT TRANSMITTERS OF THE VOICE FREQUENCY RANGE, AT LEAST ONE AT EACH LOCATION, EACH TRANSMITTER CONNECTED TO SAID COMMUNICATION CHANNEL, (B) CONTROL APPARATUS AT EACH LOCATION WITH CONNECTIONS FOR KEYING A CORRESPONDING TRANSMITTER TO TRANSMIT INFORMATION BETWEEN SAID OFFICE AND EACH STATION IN CONTINUOUSLY REPEATED SCANNING CYCLES, (C) TELEPHONE APPARATUS AT EACH LOCATION NORMALLY DISCONNECTED FROM SAID CHANNEL AND CAPABLE OF TRANSMITTING AND RECEIVING SPEECH WHEN CONNECTED, (D) A CONTROL SWITCH AT SAID OFFICE OPERABLE AT SELECTED TIMES FOR INITIATING THE CONNECTION OF THE CORRESPONDING TELEPHONE APPARATUS TO SAID CHANNEL, (E) TRANSFER RELAY MEANS AT SAID OFFICE CONTROLLED BY SAID CONTROL SWITCH FOR COMPLETING THE CHANNEL CONNECTIONS OF THE OFFICE TELEPHONE APPARATUS, (F) AN INHIBIT CIRCUIT MEANS AT SAID OFFICE CONTROLLED BY SAID RELAY MEANS FOR HALTING THE SCANNING OPERATION OF THE OFFICE CONTROL APPARATUS AND THE OPERATION OF THE OFFICE TRANSMITTERS, (G) A MONITOR MEANS AT EACH STATION WITH CONNECTIONS TO SAID CHANNEL FOR DETECTING THE RECEPTION OF CONTINUED TRANSMISSIONS FROM SAID OFFICE, (H) AN INHIBIT MEANS AT EACH STATION CONTROLLED BY THE CORRESPONDING MONITOR MEANS FOR HALTING ALL TRANSMISSIONS FROM THAT STATION WHEN SAID MONITOR MEANS DETECTS A CONTINUED ABSENCE OF TRANSMISSIONS FROM SAID OFFICE, (I) ANOTHER CONTROL SWITCH AT EACH STATION OPERABLE WHEN TELEPHONE USE IS DESIRED FOR COMPLETING THE CONNECTIONS OF THAT STATION TELEPHONE APPARATUS TO SAID CHANNEL, WHEN THAT STATION INHIBIT MEANS IS ACTIVE, (J) A SIGNALING MEANS AT EACH STATION CONTROLLED BY THE ASSOCIATED SWITCH AND WITH CONNECTIONS TO THE ASSOCIATED CONTROL APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING A TELEPHONE CALL REQUEST TO SAID OFFICE WHEN SAID ASSOCIATED SWITCH IS OPERATED.