U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,792 describes a sheet feeding apparatus including a storage cassette for holding a stack of paper sheets which stack is biased against some restraining or limiting member contacting the uppermost sheet. In the embodiments described, this restraining member is either pivoted out of the way or otherwise removed during the feeding process to permit the biased stack to directly contact a frictional feed roller, or the feed roller is lowered to contact the sheets. In either case the feed roller is rotated, upon contact with the paper, to urge the uppermost sheet within the stack of paper, into the paper processing path. The intermittent rotation of the feed roller while it contacts the sheets requires some form of clutch mechanism or mechanical timing arrangement to precisely control the rotation of the feed roller in order to achieve accurate timing and placement during the sheet feeding operation. In addition the constant pressure exerted on the paper stack as it is biased between the restraining member and the biasing means tends to deform the sheets and cause them to stick together so as to complicate the sheet feeding operation.