Record positioning apparatus

Claim 1

APPARATUS FOR SELECTING A PARTICULAR DATA MESSAGE ON AN ELONGATED RECORD MEDIUM HAVING A PLURALITY OF DATA MESSAGE RECORDED IN DATA BIT CHANNELS WITH EACH MESSAGE BEING INDICATED BY AN ASSOCIATED GROUP OF SELECTION BITS RECORDED IN SEQUENCE IN A SEPARATE SECTION CHANNEL AND WITH EACH SELECTION BIT GROUP HAVING A PREDETERMINED NUMBER OF BITS THAT IS GREATER IN NUMBER THAN THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF NOISE BITS LIKELY TO BE ENCOUNTERED DURING OPERATION OF THE APPARATUS, COMPRISING: TRANSDUCER MEANS FOR SCANNING SAID SELECTION CHANNEL, SAID TRANSDUCER MEANS SUPPLYING AN IMPULSE WHENEVER IT SENSES A SELECTION BIT IN SAID SELECTION BIT CHANNEL; MEANS FOR DRIVING SAID RECORD MEDIUM SO THAT THE SELECTION BIT GROUPS ARE PRESENTED SEQUENTIALLY BY GROUP AND BY BIT IN ORDER TO DERIVE INDIVIDUAL SERIES OF IMPULSES FROM SAID TRANSDUCER MEANS THAT CORRESPOND EXACTLY IN NUMBER AND SEQUENCE TO THE NUMBER AND SEQUENCE FO BITS IN THE SELECTION BIT GROUPS OF SAID SELECTION CHANNEL; INTEGRATING MEANS RESPONSIVE TO EACH SERIES OF SELECTION IMPULSES FROM SAID TRANSDUCER MEANS ONLY WHEN THEY EXCEED SAID MAXIMUM NUMBER TO SUPPLY A RECOGNITION SIGNAL TO INDICATE THAT AN INDIVIDUAL SELECTION BIT GROUP AND THE DATA MESSAGE ASSOCIATED THEREWITH HAS BEEN ENCOUNTERED; COUNTING MEANS, SAID COUNTING MEANS BGING INITALLY CONFERNECE IN NUMBER BETWEEN A DESIRED MESSAGE AND FERENCE IN NUMBER BETWEEN A DESIRED MESSAGE AND THE MESSAGE LOCATION AT WHICH SAID RECORD MEDIUM IS POSITIONED IN RELATION TO SAID TRANSDUCER, AND SAID COUNTING MEANS BEING RESPONSIVE AT ITS INPUT TO A NUMBER OF RECOGNITION SIGNALS FROM SAID INTEGRATING MEANS CORRESPONDING TO SAID DIFFERENCE NUMBER TO SUPPLY AN OUTPUT POTENTIAL INDICATIVE THAT THE DESIRED MESSAGE HAS BEEN LOCATED; AND CONTROL MEANS ACTIVATED BY ANB OUTPUT POTENTIAL FROM SAID COUNTING MEANS TO INTERRUPT SAID DRIVING MEANS AND THEREBY STOP SAID APPARATUS IS POSITION TO READ SAID DESIRED DATA MESSAGE.