Abstract: An electronic switching system for the control of a load, such as a motor serving to adjust the diaphragm of a motion-picture camera, comprises a normally inactive comparison circuit including a transistor bridge with a pair of NPN transistors in one pair of adjoining arms and a pair of PNP transistors in the other pair. Two complementary transistors in each half of the bridge, lying between diagonally opposite corners, are provided with a common biasing circuit shunted across that bridge diagonal, the load being connected across the other bridge diagonal. Each biasing circuit includes a resistive voltage divider with taps joined to the bases of the associated bridge transistors and a group of cascaded ancillary transistors connected across a section of the voltage divider containing one of these taps. The first ancillary transistor of each cascaded group has its base connected to an associated input terminal receiving a switching signal and a reference voltage, respectively.

Abstract: An apparatus for recording information on a flexible strip or reproducing the information so recorded includes a guide structure for directing a leading end of an oncoming strip, of initially indeterminate curvature, to a self-threading area associated with a take-up reel regardless of strip curvature. The guide structure has an outlet with two or three channels, branching from its inlet, separated by one or two generally wedge-shaped deflectors pointing toward the inlet, the channels being defined by guide rollers establishing points of intersection thereof downstream of the deflector or deflectors.

Abstract: The operating condition of a producer of intermittent radiation, such as a motion-picture projector or a television receiver, is monitored by a detector circuit including a photoelectric transducer followed by a filter with a pass band centered on the interruption frequency. The detector output is used to control the lighting of a lamp or the drawing of a curtain in a room where ambient illumination is to be suppressed or reduced during operation of the monitored apparatus. In one embodiment, the band-pass filter is inserted in a negative-feedback loop which suppresses the frequencies falling within its pass band. A band-stop filter may be connected in cascade with the band-pass filter to block the passage of signals due to other radiation such as ambient artificial light.