starts up and supplies the cord strip 36 until the cage 20 is again filled this supplying operation is continually repeated with very small feed quantities thereby preventing any sagging of the cord strip 36 the storage roller 11 is prevented from following be means of a permanently effective brake and an auxiliary electromagnetic brake this auxiliary electromagnetic brake which is not represented is switched in exactly the same manner as the electromagnetic brake 71 comprising high speed electrical energization and deenergization as a result both the supplying of the short loop 38 and the deceleration of the storage roll 11 take place at short consecutive intervals the rotating mass of the drive motor 70 is used as a gyrating mass for accelerating the storage roll 11 the circumferential speeds of the deflecting roller 12 of the separating roller 14 and the take up roller 15 and thus the feeding rate of the cord strip 36 into the short loop 38 is about 5 faster than the circumferential rate of the largest storage roll 11 to prevent marked adhesion of the cord strip 36 to the backing strip 37 in the region between the pendulum roller 33 and the take up roller 15 the pendulum roller 33 is raised into the rest position by the guide 27 during the return movement of the respective guide unit 5a d during the return movement of the guide unit 5a d the idle roller 34 drops down in the cage into the rest position such that the cord strip 36 is made to lie flat in the cage the return movement of the cord strip 36 is controlled in the following manner the drive motor 70 first changes the direction of rotation the coupling 71 is switched on until the light barrier 42.