not be accomplished at or near the recommended writing current surprisingly i found that when i used a forcing current of 100 milliamps not only was satisfactory recording effected but the recording head did not burn out or suffer any other ill effect referring to fig1 in the interests of completeness there is shown in block form the complete meal plan system which forms and is part of the environment for the present invention in the case of a meal plan system application a card reader 25 is located at the dining room entrance to verify that the student is entitled to the meal currently being served the magnetic card 10 is inserted into the slot indicated at 26 and signals that it has been inserted all the way by depressing the button 27 of switch 28 the card could be read upon insertion or upon withdrawal but i prefer to read it upon withdrawal since it is found that the speed of manual withdrawal tends to be more constant than the speed of manual insertion the signal that the card has been inserted is sent to the memory and central processor 29 by way of transmission channel 30 and such signal clears a shift register in processor 29 so that it can receive and store the information as to student identification and meal plan which is read as the card is being withdrawn and transmitted serially to the processor via transmission channel 30 a keyboard and control terminal 31.