A “Scale-of-two” High-Speed Counter Using Hard Vacuum Triodes

A high-speed recording counter circuit is described which has proved very reliable. The basic circuit element employs two triodes in a symmetrical circuit which has two stable conditions. The circuit is triggered alternately from one stable state to the other by the applied impulses acting through a circuit comprising two “Westector” cuprous oxide rectifiers and an inductance. It is easily possible to make a counter operate accurately at a speed of 20,000 random impulses a minute, provided that the associated recording meter operates in less than 1/100 sec. A “watch-dog” thyratron recording circuit is also described. This is useful where the slow speed of the mechanical recording meter would introduce loss.