Conductor supply system for communication cable making apparatus

A bobbin supply rack and selective dispensing system for a communication cable manufacturing facility in which wire is wound on bobbins having flanges on both sides thereof and on which the bobbins roll from one location to another, including in combination a rack having a plurality of compartments in vertical alignment with one another and similar horizontally-spaced compartments in horizontal alignment with one another, a supply of bobbins, each having a drum portion and flanges at opposite ends of the drum portion, groups of the bobbins having wire wrapped thereon with insulation of different color coding on the wire than on other groups of the bobbins, each of the compartments being of a length to receive and accumulate a plurality of bobbins wrapped with insulation of the same color coding, each compartment having a discharge end, an elevator shaftway at the end of the rack at which each of the discharge ends of the compartments are located, an elevator in the shaftway and extending across the discharge ends of a plurality of the horizontally spaced compartments of the rack, guides along which flanges of the bobbins of a particular color coded insulation roll into a preselected space on the elevator, and means for selectively discharging the bobbins onto the elevator from the selected horizontally spaced compartments in accordance with the color coded wires necessary for delivery to a cable making facility, said means for selectively discharging the bobbins including separate motor means at each compartment, and a stop operated by each of the separate motor means into a position to prevent discharge of a bobbin from the compartment of that motor means and into a position that permits the bobbin to roll from the compartment onto the elevator.