Francisco Quisumbing

Filipino Inventor: Filipino chemist, Francisco Quisumbing invented Quink ink, which is used in Parker Pens. Quink ink is named after Francisco Quisumbing and is also an amalgam of "quick and ink". It is a quick drying ink with a cleaning property that prevents the ink from clogging the pen.

PROUD TO BE Q: Tracing the QUINK STORY Compiled by: Cora Quisumbing-King (October 2007) As the story goes, Lolo Paquito (II-01 Honorato/III-4 Francisco Arguelles Quisumbing) invented Parker’s Quink (a short version of Quisumbing Ink). I first found out about this from my Chemistry teacher in College. Other Qs may have been told this “Proud to be Q” information by their parents. The direct descendants of Lolo Paquito know this as part of their Q story and legacy.

Chuchi Luspo Constantino had a tall green bottle that indeed shows the name Quisumbing Ink. It is now in the hands of Albert Quisumbing. Chuchi has been trying to get documentation from Parker. Her deductions: Although we don't have the document to support that the ink manufactured by Lolo Paquito became Parker Quink, Parker also can't really contradict us if the Qs claim Quink was an invention of Lolo Paquito.

In a letter to Chuchi dated 2/10/98, Mary Hughes-Greer (Parker archivist) writes that her research of Quink did not yield the name of Francisco Quisumbing (Lolo Paquito). She wrote further that Quink was first developed by an outside laboratory and later in the Parker laboratories. The name of the outside laboratory has not been verified by Parker although the “outside laboratory chemists” worked 32 months on Quink. This is something we Qs do not understand-- why Parker can't verify the laboratory. Per Chuchi, Parker was a pen company established in 1888 and introduced new pens almost every two years and out of the blues in 1931 introduced Quink.

Per Vising Quisumbing who spoke to Vicky Yaptinchay Quisumbing (granddaughter of Lolo Paquito), all the family knows is that the patent (?) was sold with the condition that the QUINK name be kept. Apparently, there were no royalties.

Note the following information:

1923 Lolo Paquito established Quisumbing Ink products

1931 Parker introduced Quink

1934 Lolo Paquito established Quisumbing School of Technology

Additional information on Lolo Paquito can be found in his family tree and on Who’s Who in the Philippines (by Franz J Weisblatt, 1940, p.148. Publisher: McCullough).

Wikipedia

Encyclopedia of the Philippines: The Library of Philippine Literature, Art and Science, Volume 9: Builders of the New Philippines (1936, p. 503, Image 213)

Cornejo’s Commonwealth Directory of the Philippines (1939), by Miguel Cornejo (p. 2037)

Who's Who in the Philippines: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Men of the Philippines, Volume II 1940-1941 (1940), by Franz J. Weissblatt (p. 148, Image 196)

United States World War I draft registration card

Marriage certificate with Consuelo Sy Yap

Marriage certificate with Pilar Ibarra