Read apparatus having vertical turret magazine for information discs

Claim 1

A read apparatus for information stored on a plurality of information discs, comprising a turret magazine rotatable about an axis of rotation and comprising a plurality of storage compartments which are equidistantly spaced along its circumference and are adapted to hold the information discs, a disc-drive arrangement for rotating a disc selected from the turret magazine, a feed-in device for conveying a disc from a storage compartment into the disc-drive arrangement and back into a storage compartment, and a scanning device for reading the information stored on a disc which is rotated by the disc-drive arrangement, characterized in that the turret magazine is rotatable in a first vertical plane, the disc-drive arrangement is surrounded by the turret magazine in such a way that a disc received from said magazine is rotatable in a second vertical plane which extends substantially perpendicular to the first vertical plane and storage compartments are situated underneath and above said axis of rotation, the feed-in device essentially comprises a loading funnel and an unloading funnel arranged respectively above and underneath a receiving compartment of the disc-drive arrangement, each funnel guiding the disc while being conveyed, each storage compartment has an associated releasable holding device for the discs, and the receiving compartment of the disc-drive arrangement has an associated releasable holding device for a disc received from the magazine.