Abstract: A retractable bumper is mounted to the rear of a cotton module transport. The bumper is attached to elongated shafts which are pivoted in tubes. The tubes are mounted upon a bracket which is hinged below the bed of the transport. Before the bed is tilted to a lower position, the bumper is telescoped forward in the tubes and the tubes tilted so that the bumper is moved against the bottom of the bed.

Abstract: In a telecommunications switching system, the physical switching matrix is constructed in modular parts for easy expansion. A complete set of switching lines in one direction is cross-indexed with a partial set of switching lines in the other direction, and modular expansion is allowed by adding further partial sets of switching lines to further complete the matrix. Minimum bit delay is accomplished by routing all data bits through at most two data buffers on their transmission through the switch.

Abstract: In a telecommunication switching system, a communication link between distant devices is allocated in a quasi-TDMA (time division multiple access) manner between two distant devices. Messages are conformed to a data format which allows the switching center to determine in which direction data is to be transmitted, within at most a few bit transmission times. Both half-duplex and full-duplex communication links are possible.

Abstract: In an telecommunications switching system, user clock data is "massively sampled" at the source node with reference to a global clock signal, and reconstructed with no more than allowable error at the destination. Massive sampling and reconstruction of the clock signal allows users of the transmission system to send data at arbitrary data rates and to perform their own clock synchronization at a different protocol level from the hardware switching system. Direct use of the global system clock rate of approximately 192 kilobits per second (kbps) is provided for by synchronizing the user data with the global clock signal.

Abstract: Individual tones in a tone burst of limited duration are discriminated by repeatedly counting clock pulses during a definite selected number of tone cycles to produce a count summation. The selected number of cycles in each summation is so chosen that a clock frequency of relatively small value will produce a large enough count to insure clear discrimination between the input tones to be distinguished. At the same time, the invention provides a large enough number of distinct count summations to permit rigorous validation of each received tone. The available number of count summations is greatly increased by permitting successive summations to include several tone cycles in common.