Tingle table
n.— «The Tingle Table, designed by an IRS employee in 1961, is used at Service Centers to sort paper tax returns.» —by Department of The Treasury Internal Revenue Service Annual Report Fiscal Year 1998 (Washington, D.C.) May 20, 1999. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Katie in Everett, Washington, is curious about the expression If ifs and ands were pots and pans, there’d be no need for tinkers. What is a tinker? She heard this phrase on the television series The Gilded Age, in response to a character who...
My father, James M. Tingle, invented the “Tingle Table” while working for the IRS in Chamblee/Atlanta, Georgia, in the early 1960’s. He never worked in Fresno, Californa, but did transfer to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1976.
Hello, I saw your entry for the Tingle Table and thought I could give you additional information. James Tingle was my father. He did invent the table while employed by the IRS in Atlanta, Georgia. He built the prototype in our back yard when I was a child. I helped him by sitting on the lumber as he cut it to the lengths needed to build the table. He later transfered to the Chamblee, Georgia service center where the table was first tested and installed. The first units were built by federal prison labor. The table was built upon motion principles and therefore not able to patented. What it accomplishes is to reduce the time taken by the mail opener to remove the contents of an envelope, previously opened mechanically, sort the contents, file them for action and “candle” the envelope to ensure that all the contents have be removed. The table was so sucessful that it was implemented in all IRS Service Centers nation wide, where it is still in service today. Use of the table has saved taxpayers millions of dollars by reducing the time spent to open and sort mail during tax season.
Hello Judy and Jim Tingle. I was the Facilities Management Branch Chief at the IRS Cincinnati Service Center when your father retired from his position as Chief, Management Staff working for the Assistant Regional Commissioner-Resources Management. Out Director, Pat Ruttle, had me deliver a ‘well used’ Tingle Table to your family home as a farewell gesture…can’t imagine what Jim did with it. Also, in late 85 when I moved away your father, then retired, was the realtor that sold my home. I returned to the Cinci area in 99 and retired from my position as Accounts Management Center director.
Dan Myers