Abstract: A thermal nib is provided, which is heated by being directly inserted into an electrical circuit, and which enables writing on thermal paper.

Abstract: A utility billing transactor is disclosed for entering a new meter reading, computing the amount of utility service delivered as the difference between a previous meter reading and the new meter reading, computing the amount to be paid, and printing a bill showing the new meter reading and the amount due. A card, which has the customer's identification (ID) number, previous meter reading and billing rate code entered on it, is inserted into the transactor to initiate automatic sequencing of steps to: read the ID number, call for keyboard entry of a new meter reading, read the previous meter reading, compute the difference between the meter reading, compute the amount due as the product of a rate or schedule of rates determined from the billing rate code (either directly or through a table stored in a read-only memory) and printing the bill. The entire transaction, including data read from the card and data computed is recorded in nonvolatile memory and immediately checked for recording error.