General Research of Electronics, Inc.

Wayne Gilbert

Nobuaki Yokoyama

Kazuyoshi Imazeki

A telephone-line dedicating apparatus which is connected between an external telephone-line and a specified telephone-line utilization apparatus such as a telephone-set, facsimile machine or the like and which upon energization causes one or more other telephone-line utilization apparatus to be unable to function connected to said external telephone-line is disclosed. Specially, when said specified telephone-line utilization apparatus is a facsimile machine, any influence on said facsimile machine which is in use, due to noises from the other equipments connected to the same external telephone-line can be prevented. The telephone-line dedicating apparatus comprises: impedance insertion means for inserting impedance means across said external telephone-line to decrease the telephone-line DC voltage level, in response to the operative condition of said specified telephone-line utilization apparatus; and operating-current path setting means including a DC power supply and establishing an operating-current path from said DC power supply to said specified telephone-line utilization apparatus through said impedance means when said impedance means has been inserted across said external telephonel-ine.

Telephone-line dedicating apparatus

A telephone answering apparatus permits a called party to select between an automatic mode wherein a message is automatically played back to a caller without any action of the called party and a prenouncer mode wherein a message is played back to the caller when activated by the called party. The telephone answering apparatus includes a ring detector circuit connectable to an outside line and responsive to an incoming call on the outside line for producing a ring detected signal, a timer and driver circuit responsive to the ring detected signal for producing a playback signal and a manually actuatable answer switch. A mode switch capable of selecting one of the prenouncer mode and the automatic mode is connected to the timer and driver circuit, to the ring detector circuit and to the answer switch.

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Honolulu, HI, United States of America

Wayne Gilbert