Feeder with large pseudo-radius

A method for feeding documents comprising,

• creating a nip between a feeder and a separator, where documents in a stack are urged singly into said nip and advanced there beyond by said feeder, urging one or more said documents randomly to said nip by a rotating nudger, to form a stack of one or more documents adjacent said nip, said nudger having an open space separation from said nip and said feeder, said nudger disposed adjacent the end document in said stack and arranged to periodically thrust said end document across said separation into said nip and as soon as said end document leaves said nudger, said nudger immediately contacts the next-to-the-end document in said stack and begins to thrust it forward,
• said feeder advancing said end document from said stack through said nip without simultaneously advancing a second document, said feeder surface defined by a large radius, less than an infinity radius, at the point of said nip so that the surface of said feeder bends away from said nip in the direction from which said sheets are fed, said feeder made up of a small section of a moving belt with said small section being curved to define a large radius, less than an infinity radius, at the point of said nip, said moving curved belt reducing the size of said feeder required to obtain a large radius at the point of said nip, said feeder acting with greater friction on said sheet than the friction on said nudger on said sheets,
• restraining the remaining documents of said stack with said separator, said separator surface defined by a smaller radius than said large radius, which is less than infinity, of said feeder.