Quink

Quink (a portmanteau word from 'quick' and 'ink') is a fountain pen ink developed by the Parker Pen Company. The ink was novel for using isopropyl alcohol as a solvent, which dried by absorption rather than evaporation of previous water-based inks. However the composition of the ink damaged some pen barrels and caps. The ink was later marketed with the Parker 51 pen, introduced ten years after Quink's release into the marketplace and designed to be unaffected by the chemical properties of Quink.

In 1928, under the direction of Kenneth Parker, the Parker Pen Company invested three years and USD $68,000 into the development of an ink that would eliminate the need for blotting. Research for the project was headed by Galen Sayler, a chemist working in a small laboratory at company headquarters in Janesville, Wisconsin. It was during the project development stage that the major discovery regarding absorption was made.

Quink was first marketed in 1931. The resulting product was strongly alkaline and contained isopropyl alcohol, a solvent not previously used in inks. At that time, most pen barrels and caps were manufactured of Celluloid, which was often damaged by the alcohol contained in Quink. This problem led to minor internal changes to existing pen models, using other newly-available plastics for components of their feed.

A common misconception about Quink is that it was intended primarily for the Parker 51, which generated over 400 million dollars in sales during its thirty-year history. Although Quink was indeed ideal for use with the 51, Parker's other pens of this generation were just as capable of using it. The Parker 51 was only made available in 1941, ten years after Quink's development. Two inks that were best used with the 51 specifically were the later fast-drying Double Quink and the extra-fast Superchrome.

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