Storage means for receiving, assembling, and distributing teletype characters

Claim 1

CHARACTER ASSEMBLING MEANS FOR ASSEMBLING IN PARALLEL FROM ENCODED SIGNALS RECEIVED IN SERIAL FORM FROM A PLURALITY OF CHARACTER SOURCES AND COMPRISING: A FIRST PLURALITY OF N CIRCULATING MEMORIES EACH HAVING INPUT MEANS, OUTPUT MEANS, AND IN EACH CIRCULATING CYCLE A PLURALITY OF TIME POSITIONS WITH RESPECT TO AN ARBITRARY TIME REFERENCE; SELECTING MEANS FOR CONNECTING THE OUTPUT OF ANY GIVEN CHARACTER SOURCE TO THE INPUTS OF SUCCESSIVE ONE OF SAID N CIRCULATING MEMORIES AT INTEGRAL MULTIPLES OF THE CIRCULATING TIME OF SAID N CIRCULATING MEMORIES TO STORE A SINGLE BIT IN EACH INDIVIDUAL ONE OF SAID N CIRCULATING MEMORIES AT ONE OF SAID TIME POSITIONS; SAID SELECTING MEANS FURTHER CONSTRUCTED TO CONNECT THE OUTPUTS OF SAID CHARACTER SOURCES OTHER THAN SAID GIVEN CHARACTER SOURCE TO SAID N CIRCULATING MEMORIES AT DIFFERENT AND PREDETERMINED ONES OF SAID TIME POSITIONS; TIME-KEEPING MEANS COMPRISING A SECOND PLURALITY OF M CIRCULATING MEMORIES EACH HAVING A PLURALITY OF TIME POSITIONS AND CONSTRUCTED TO RESPOND TO THE CIRCULATION OF DATA IN THE TIME POSITIONS OF SAID N CIRCULATING MEMORIES TO RECORD SEPARATELY THE NUMBER OF CIRCULATIONS OF EACH DATA-CONTAINING TIME POSITION OF SAID N CIRCULATING MEMORIES; AND TRANSFERRING MEANS FOR TRANSFERRING DATA FROM ANY GIVEN TIME POSITION TO SAID OUTPUT MEANS.