Stacked article counting apparatus

Apparatus for counting a number of sheet-like articles such as corrugated sheets of paper is disclosed as comprising a platen mounted to be driven rectilinearly from a topmost position to engage the top of the stack, a motor for reversibly driving the platen and a counter for counting the number of pulses required to drive the platen from its topmost position to the top of the stack, thus providing an indication by the number of counted pulses of the distance between the topmost platen position and the top of the stack. Further, a circuit is provided for determining the difference between the first measured distance and the total distance between the bottom of the stack to thereby provide an indication of the stack height, which stack height in a particular unit of measurement, e.g., inches, is multiplied by a factor corresponding to the number of sheets per unit measurement to provide the number of sheets in the stack.